[caferacer]

4 years ago I planted a Privet hedge mostly from potted plants but some bare root whips were used.The hedge is doing well.In Summer it looks great but in Winter all the bare root plants lose their leaves whilst the potted plants hold onto theirs.Suggestions?

[Greengage]

Privet is What?? Evergreen or deciduous, sometimes sold as semi-evergreen,
Around here it is deciduous and looses its leaves, The only suggestion I could make is that The ones that loose its leaves are probably native and the potted ones imported therefore they keep their leaves longer, Also are they the same varieties any chance of a photo of it in leaf in summer and as it is now.

[caferacer]

Ive resized and cropped the pic but it cant be loaded for some reason......

[caferacer]

Pic

[caferacer]

You can see the dramatic difference between the left and right hand side of the hedge in the pic.

[Greengage]

I would not be too worried It will recover come spring, but i would remove the grass from around the roots to stop it competing with the plants.

[Kim]

I would take cuttings of the evergreen ones and interplant the successful cuttings between the deciduous plants, then gradually cut back the deciduous plants as the evergreen ones grow. It would be a slow but inexpensive way to eventually have a consistent evergreen hedge as the deciduous plants could eventually be completely replaced.


I see this forum has an automatic description every time someone writes deciduous! Lol

[caferacer]

Thanks Kim,I was thinking along those lines but cuttings would take too long.In late February Im thinking of digging out every second shedding plant and replace with evergreen.Although the hedge will come back in Spring, I really want a hedge for 12 months of the year not 6/7.What variety of evergreen privet should I look for?

[Kim]

Perhaps take a piece of your existing hedge along to a good garden centre and see if you can find a match for it. A good garden centre will have someone who will know and help you find the correct match, even if it means waiting while they source it for you.

Replacing every 2nd plant will be slower and cheaper than replacing the whole hedge and will be less drastic visually. The new plants will need extra care / water in a dry spell as the existing plants will have established roots leaving the new plants vulnerable. I expect in time you could then layer your new plants to replace the remaining deciduous ones. (I don't actually know if privet can be layered, anyone else know? I layer lots of things as it's so easy but not everything works).

[caferacer]

Im between minds,Im half tempted to dig up the entire corner and replace the lot.I was in a garden centre a few days before Christmas and saw some potted and bare root privet.The potted variety were evergreen and still were in full leaf so I might just bite the bullet and replace with them.What would be the best time to replant?February/March?

[Greengage]

Bare rooted any time between now and march so long as the ground is not frozen or waterlogged., Potted any time so long as ground is not frozen or waterlogged

[kindredspirit]

Do you like privet?

What about firing the whole lot out and planting with either Laurel or Escallonia?

Just a thought.

[Sive]

I wouldn't recommend Escallonia just now as there is a fungus attacking it, making it drop its leaves in the autumn.

[kindredspirit]

[Sive]

That's interesting KS, and good news for you.......I thought the fungus had spread fairly widely throughout the country by now. I keep hoping my own escallonia hedge might eventually develop resistance ! Probably a foolish hope, I know.