Hedging
How to grow a privet hedge
Ligustrum ovalifolium
Privet makes a dense hedge in three or four years in sun or shade, on any soil that is not waterlogged, and puts up with town air. Plant bare-root between October and March, three to the metre, and cut every plant back by half so it bushes from the ground. It is a hungry hedge: feed in March and June, and clip it several times each summer.
- Hardiness
- Fully hardy; semi-evergreen
- Position
- Sun to shade
- Soil
- Most soils; free-draining
- Ideal pH
- 6.0 to 7.5
- Water
- Moderate, it is greedy and dries the ground around it
- Feeding
- Moderate feeder
Sowing and planting a privet hedge
WhenPlant Oct to Mar; clip May to Aug every 4 to 6 weeks
Starting off
Plant bare-root Oct to Mar, the cheapest way for a long hedge, or pot-grown stock any time it is not frozen. Propagate by 20 to 30 cm hardwood cuttings in Oct to Nov in a slit trench outdoors, rooting by the following autumn with near-total success; any prunings pushed into the ground usually take.
Spacing and planting
Unclipped L. ovalifolium reaches 4 m by 4 m; as a hedge hold it at 1 to 2 m. Plant bare-root hedging at 30 cm apart in a single row (3 per metre), or 45 cm apart in a staggered double row 30 cm apart for a thick screen, and cut all stems back by half at planting to force bushy growth from the base. Golden 'Aureum' is tolerable in a 45 cm pot as a clipped ball.
Varieties worth growing
- Oval-leaved privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium)
- The standard green hedging privet. Fast, cheap bare-root, and keeps most of its leaves through an ordinary winter.
- 'Aureum' (golden privet)
- Leaves broadly edged yellow. Slower than the green and needs sun to colour; cut out any plain green shoots.
- 'Argenteum'
- Cream-margined leaves giving a grey-green effect. A softer alternative to golden privet in a mixed hedge.
- Wild privet (L. vulgare)
- The British native, with narrower leaves, scented white flowers and black berries. For mixed wildlife hedges on chalk; drops more leaf in winter.
- L. delavayanum
- Small-leaved evergreen sold as clipped balls and lollipop standards. Less hardy than hedging privet, so give it a sheltered spot.
A privet hedge month by month
Timings are for central England. Allow two weeks later in the north and on cold, heavy soil.
- January
Plant bare-root in open weather.
- February
Plant. Order feed and mulch.
- March
First feed, then mulch. Hard renovation of overgrown hedges. Last bare-root planting.
- April
Growth starts. Water anything planted since autumn if the month is dry.
- May
First clip late in the month, after checking for nests.
- June
Second feed. Clip again four to six weeks after the first.
- July
Clip. White flowers appear on unclipped shoots; the scent divides opinion.
- August
Final clip of the year, by the end of the month.
- September
No clipping from now on, so growth hardens before frost.
- October
Planting season opens. Take hardwood cuttings 20 to 30 cm long into a slit trench.
- November
Plant bare-root and cut back by half. More hardwood cuttings.
- December
Plant in mild spells. Some leaf drop in hard frost is normal.
Feeding a privet hedge
A moderate, greedy feeder. Every clip removes nutrients, so a hedge cut three or four times a summer needs feeding in March and again in June, with a mulch to hold moisture at the base.
Moderate, a hungry, fast hedge; a balanced spring feed keeps it dense.
Feeding plan
At planting, October to March
The label rate is 5 g per litre of root volume. A bare-root privet has roughly half a litre of root, so 2.5 g per plant: about 8 g per metre at 3 plants per metre, dusted onto damp roots. Once only.
March
100 g per metre run: the label's 100 g/m² over a strip 1 m wide, half on each side of the hedge, raked in lightly and watered.
March, after feeding
Garden compost
A 5 cm mulch along both sides. Privet roots dry the soil for a metre around, and the mulch is what keeps the base leafy.
June, after the first or second clip
A second 100 g per metre run, watered in. Skip it on a mature hedge that is already growing faster than you want to cut it.
March and June, golden privet in pots
2 g per litre of compost on the surface: 60 g for a 45 cm pot holding about 30 litres.
Signs to watch
Pale yellow-green leaves and thin growth on an old hedge → nitrogen hunger from decades of clipping without feeding → balanced feed at 100 g per metre run in Mar and Jun, compost mulch. Leaf drop in winter → normal for a semi-evergreen in a cold year, not a deficiency. Older leaves yellow between the veins in Aug on sand → magnesium short → Epsom salts drench at 20 g per litre.
Pests, diseases and problems
A section of hedge wilts and dies within a season, and the gap widens year on year
Honey fungus, to which privet is among the most susceptible garden plants. Look for a white sheet of fungus smelling of mushrooms under the bark at ground level
Dig out dead and dying plants with all the roots you can find, plus the plant either side. Replant the gap with something rarely attacked, such as yew or box, not with more privet.
Leaves turn dull silvery-grey or brown in July and August
Privet thrips feeding on the upper leaf surface, worst in hot dry summers
Water and feed so the hedge grows through it; the next clip removes most of the marked leaves. No lasting harm.
Brown blotches in the leaves and leaf tips rolled into a tube in June
Lilac leaf miner, a small moth whose caterpillar also attacks lilac and ash
Clip off the affected growth and bin it. Light attacks can be ignored.
Brown spots on the leaves followed by heavy leaf fall in a wet summer
Fungal leaf spot
Rake up fallen leaves, clip in dry weather and feed in spring. The hedge releafs.
A large green caterpillar with purple and white diagonal stripes and a black horn at the tail
Privet hawk moth, one of Britain's largest moths
Leave it. It eats a few shoots, does no real damage, and pupates in the soil in early autumn.
Pruning
Pruning and care
Clip May to Aug every 4 to 6 weeks (3 to 4 cuts a season) with shears or a hedge trimmer, keeping the top narrower than the base and never cutting after early Sep so growth hardens before frost. Clip golden forms less often to keep the colour. Privet renovates superbly: cut a neglected hedge to 30 cm, or one face at a time to the trunk, in Mar, feed and mulch, and it is thick again in 2 years. Its greedy r
Good to knowClip several times through summer for a tight hedge; semi-evergreen in mild winters.
Growing a privet hedge in pots
Hedging privet is too greedy and thirsty to be worth growing in a pot, but golden privet and small-leaved L. delavayanum make good clipped balls and standards in a 45 cm pot of loam-based compost. Water freely from April to September, feed in March and June, and clip little and often. Move L. delavayanum against a house wall in a hard winter.
A privet hedge: common questions
Why is my privet hedge dying in patches?
The most likely cause is honey fungus, which kills privet a plant or two at a time and leaves a spreading gap. Peel back the bark at soil level on a dead plant: a white, mushroom-smelling sheet of fungus confirms it. Remove the dead plants and their roots and replant with a resistant hedge such as yew.
How often should you cut a privet hedge?
Clip privet two to four times between late May and the end of August, roughly every four to six weeks, for a tight formal hedge. Two cuts are the minimum. Stop by early September so the last growth hardens before frost.
How fast does privet grow?
About 30 to 50 cm a year once established. Cut back by half at planting and fed, a bare-root hedge reaches 1.5 m and is dense to the ground in three to four years.
Sources
Growing information on this page was checked against these references in November 2026. Feeding rates are Dr Forest label rates.