Privet is a popular, evergreen/semi-evergreen hedging plant with bright green leaves. It forms a dense hedge that creates a screen for privacy. Privet has masses of white flowers in summer are popular with bees and butterflies.
Privet normally keeps its leaves when planted in the ground but can lose some or all of its leaves in winter if kept in pots or planted in very exposed or cold sites.
Read morePrivet is a popular, evergreen/semi-evergreen hedging plant with bright green leaves. It forms a dense hedge that creates a screen for privacy. Privet has masses of white flowers in summer are popular with bees and butterflies.
Privet normally keeps its leaves when planted in the ground but can lose some or all of its leaves in winter if kept in pots or planted in very exposed or cold sites.
Privet can be planted at any time of year if it is pot or container-grown. If you plant in the winter or early spring, the hedging plants will need less water over the summer as they will get some roots established over the winter/early spring months. If planted in late spring, summer or early autumn, privet hedging will need to be watered until they have an established root system – usually until the next winter.
Rootballed and bare-root privet need to be planted between November and March.
Privet hedging will grow in most soils as long they are free-draining (i.e. do not stay waterlogged for long periods in the winter). In sheltered and urban sites, privet will keep most or all of its leaves in the winter. In more exposed sites, privet will lose some or all of its leaves in the winter.
You can keep a privet hedge at any height by trimming it once a year. If it does get too big, it can be cut back hard and it will re-shoot from ‘old wood’ (i.e. wood with no leaves), infact, you can prune it right back to the stump and it will re-shoot. The eventual height if not trimmed is approximately 5m (15ft).
If you are planting container grown plants, plant 2-3ft (60-90cm) apart depending on how quick you want the hedge to “fill in”. Use our Hedge Spacing Calculator to help you work out how many plants you need. If you want a quick hedge, then plant at 60cm (2ft) apart but if you are willing to wait a bit longer, you will get just as good a hedge at 3ft (90cm) apart.
Our hedging troughs are 1 metre wide lengths of privet hedging and can be planted 1 metre apart to form an “instant hedge”.
Bare-root privet plants should be planted 3 to 5 plants per metre, depending on how quickly you want the hedging plants to form a screen.
The rate of growth is up to 30-45cm (12 to 18 inches) per year if it is planted properly. Laurel hedging is a quicker alternative which grows up to 60cm (2ft) per year.
