This is the view from the top. The front of the leaves are a beautiful green.

Charlene's ideas · More Info

But the back side of the leaves are turning this color.

Charlene's ideas · More Info

all plants shed leaves .. its cyclical .. and increased by any stress ... your plant was stressed from all it took for it to get planted at your house ...

it would not be unusual for it to shed some leaves ...

if its only showing now.. with temp and sun changes.. due to winter ... then you did a pretty darn good job ... and i would suggest you tread lightly and try not to love them to death.. by finding some problem.. and trying to fix it ...

the future is in the buds .... and after they flush in spring.. everything inside .. will disappear ...

frankly;. your plants look great.. though the sunshine distorts the pix a bit ...

i wouldnt worry about them .. and i surely dont see anything to fix ...

ken

ps: boy.. that last pic.. wheres your next door neighbor.. 2 miles away .. lol .. looks and sounds great... lol ...

Thank you so much for your reply! Unfortunately, the sun isn't distorting them. They really are turning a brown/yellow on the bottom side of the leaves. I'm a beginner when it comes to plants, and like you said, I tend to love them to death, haha. But I am truly concerned with the color change, when everything I've read says that wintergreens are known for keeping their green color in winter.

I have two boxwoods that I planted recently. One did very well but the other turned all brown. We had had a lot of very hot weather and no rain so I watered it more but it did not seem to help any. I thought I was going to lose it but when the weather turned cooler it perked up and turned bright green again. Hopefully yours will return to good form too.

Although they say this boxwood stays green, mine turns bronzy in winter. Perhaps they were mislabeled, not sure, but like you, I was disappointed the first year I planted them. I would bet yours perks back up to a true green in spring.

Looks like a very exposed, rural planting site, with lots of sun. In other words one that would be the most likely to produce winter discoloration.

Beefing up the thin and puddled looking mulch might help - it would certainly be likely to improve growth response even if it has little effect on the discoloration issue.

Just don't let it bury the stem bases (root crown).