Sounds like red tip photinia, Photinia x fraseri. Most broadleaved evergreen shrubs can be used for hedging purposes - English laurel, Pacific wax myrtle, podocarpus, pittosporum, oleander, escallonia, osmanthus, Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis) and Viburnum tinus grow relatively rapidly and should all work in your zone. Clumping bamboo is another choice - at least for privacy screening purposes if not a true hedge.

As soon as I saw the wrinkled, stunted leaves in the first photo, I thought you were dealing with herbicide damage. In my experience, if I have to stand and wonder and check the reference materials, it hasn't turned out to be RRD. Once you've seen RRD in person, you'll never mistake it for anything else. When you use Round-Up in your beds around your roses, keep the pressure in your sprayer REALLY low ... just a few pumps -- only enough to get the spray out the end of the nozzle. This forms a very coarse spray which is much less likely to drift. Put your nozzle directly over the weed, spray a teeny spray, and hope you didn't get any chemical anywhere else. When I'm spraying in my beds, I wear flip flops so my feet can instantly feel if I have drift. Last suggestion, do it in the early morning before the breezes come up. If the tree leaves are blowing, put your sprayer away. If the weeds are grasses, you can use a selective herbicide called Ornamec. It is labeled to be used over the top of most broadleaf crops ... including roses. It takes up to two weeks to work, but it will kill Bermuda and crabgrass without harming your roses. (Don't use Ornamec near daylilies.) This should help you get most of the weeds in your beds. Using herbicide in such a surgical way has the added benefit of not stirring up the soil and exposing more weed seeds that would sprout and perpetuate the problem. You still have to pull any weeds that are under or in contact with your roses. Connie

Kenny, I am not sure what your concerns are :-) Nothing I can see from your photo causes me worry. Small, young trees often do not develop full size foliage nor do the leaves necessarily look the same as that on more mature trees. This is because JM's can produce both juvenile and adult foliage. Young trees tend towards more juvenile foliage, gradually leaving it for more adult foliage as they age. But even mature trees can produce some juvenile growth, especially with second season or midsummer growth. I don't see anything that looks especially "gnarly" - just some smallish and little bit misshapen leaves. But then the photo I provided shows leaves very similar (And no, it is not my photo).

Hey guys, cheers for the responses. Checked my tap water pH. seems to be off the scale high alkalinity. like 15. the soil seems to be around 7 if dry. im going to grab some sulfuric acid and treat the water and see if that makes a dif. been reading a fair bit n see that high alkalinity impairs plants ability to absorbe nutrients so could be that. I fertilise usually around every 8 or nine days with a weak mix of powdered tomato fertilizer which seems to work an absolute treat but now some of my new plants have copped it bad... pots or ground doesnt matter. the soil is just sand. no water retention. get a hot day and its all over. even moisture levels is hard as i can go from wet in the morning to completely dry and wilted while im at work. I'll play with the pH though and get back to you. more photos this arvo of the latest casualties.