Question
One year ago we had 24 Green Velvet Boxwoods installed for a south facing formal front yard look.
Installation was in Aug. 2008, in the winter the shrubs were  very bronze, and after carefully
watering and caring, the bushes stiill aren't a nice green.  Still have a yellowish and bronze color,
with some green coloring. We live in Chicago.  The boxwood were 2 1/2 ft tall when installed.
Can you help me?

Answer
Hello Beth

Thank you for your question.

As you are in Chicago my instinct says that this is probably damage caused by cold.  If your front yard faces south - to catch the sun, and you have planted the boxwoods opposite the house  across the width of the yard, then they will face north - the cold side.  If the plants have no protection from cold air and frost they will be damaged as you describe.

What to do? - Well, first I would advise that you give the plants a good deep mulch of leaf mould or garden compost (about 3" deep).  

Then - before the winter sets in, get a length of green wind-break netting a little higher than the hedge, and plenty of stakes, aabout 6 inches longer than the wind-break material is high, plus a good quantity of small plant ties - all of these should be readily available from your local garden center or plant outlet.

Next - place the stakes firmly in the ground about 1 foot from the garden side of the hedge, and fix the netting to them with ties in three places down the stake - bottom, middle and top.  This will (hopefully) filter any wind and also give some protection from old air.

Next spring when plants begin to come into growth, take a careful look at the hedge to see if there are any signs of fresh green growth low down on the plants.  If there is, you might trim down some of the dead looking growth and give the plants a good watering and feed with a half strength liquid fertilizer to encourage them to grow - you can increase the strength of the feed once the plants begin to look as if they are really serious about growing!!

I do hope this works for you - a neatly trimmed boxwood hedge is a joy to behold - at least I think so!!