I always wondered this. In the botanical garden that I work intern at, I see all these hedges of boxwoods and Japanese plum yews. But what if one died? Especially if it was like right in the middle of the hedge? How do you successfully take out the plant and replant another one? I'm asking because with all the other plants around it, its impossible to go around digging it up and I'm sure the roots of the dead one have spread around and by trying to dig up the root, you're going to be damaging the surrounding hedge plants.