How far can you cut back privet?

lostinrates

We have aprivet hedge we planned to replace with yew as it takesup so much of a narrow part of our garden ( at least two metres at one point. It grows so quickly i am always cutting it back and i find it very high maintanance.

BUT, the smell of the flower is so delicious i feel tempted to keep it. If i were to keep it i would need to cut it back severely....will this kill it?

Leif

Well you can always cut it back to where it would be acceptable, and if it dies you have lost nothing, as it would have been too big without pruning. When you prune it back, do more than you think, as you need to allow for the new growth. Deciduous plants tend to take severe pruning with ease. I cut Holly at the base, and split the trunks with an axe, and I am still cutting off new shoots many months later. And a Sycamore root I hacked and drilled out has roots that are sprouting. I do not know the best time to prune privet.

annie123

Mum would let hers get 10' tall in the front garden, then after enough complaints from next door I'd cut it down to 3'. It always grew back. Now shes moved to the coast, no more private hedge, she's moved on to leylandii :mad:

I trim the one at my MIL twice a year, once in May and then in August that's enough to keep it at around 5'.

lostinrates

annie123 wrote: »

Mum would let hers get 10' tall in the front garden, then after enough complaints from next door I'd cut it down to 3'. It always grew back. Now shes moved to the coast, no more private hedge, she's moved on to leylandii :mad:

I trim the one at my MIL twice a year, once in May and then in August that's enough to keep it at around 5'.

I love the height on ours, its more the width that concerns me!

lostinrates

Leif wrote: »

Well you can always cut it back to where it would be acceptable, and if it dies you have lost nothing, as it would have been too big without pruning. When you prune it back, do more than you think, as you need to allow for the new growth. Deciduous plants tend to take severe pruning with ease. I cut Holly at the base, and split the trunks with an axe, and I am still cutting off new shoots many months later. And a Sycamore root I hacked and drilled out has roots that are sprouting. I do not know the best time to prune privet.

I see what you are saying, but i cannot afford to replace with yew immediately so if its a choice of keeping as is for a few years i might opt for that over killing it or rendering it bare and brown on one side for years and years;)

Missy79

I have privet and it's incredibly fast growing. I've cut it right back in the middle of summer and it still came back no problem, so cut back as far as you like you'll just have a bare brown hedge for a while before it grows back in. (Does so from new shoots on the bare branches)

lostinrates

Missy79 wrote: »

I have privet and it's incredibly fast growing. I've cut it right back in the middle of summer and it still came back no problem, so cut back as far as you like you'll just have a bare brown hedge for a while before it grows back in. (Does so from new shoots on the bare branches)

Brilliant,thanks.

valk_scot

The local oiks set fire to the tall privet hedge along one side of our allotment one year. Petrol was involved, I belive, and the firemen that came to put it it out (We're close to an old folk's home) did more damage to the plots than the fire if truth be told. Anyway it was reduced to a ten foot high lattice of charred sticks so we hastily bought lots of young hedging plants like hawthorn to try to replace the hedge asap. Six years later there's few signs of these, the privet has come back stronger than ever and outgrown the lot of them. I'm not convinced you can actually kill privet at all now.

Leif

valk_scot wrote: »

I'm not convinced you can actually kill privet at all now.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

lostinrates

valk_scot wrote: »

The local oiks set fire to the tall privet hedge along one side of our allotment one year. Petrol was involved, I belive, and the firemen that came to put it it out (We're close to an old folk's home) did more damage to the plots than the fire if truth be told. Anyway it was reduced to a ten foot high lattice of charred sticks so we hastily bought lots of young hedging plants like hawthorn to try to replace the hedge asap. Six years later there's few signs of these, the privet has come back stronger than ever and outgrown the lot of them. I'm not convinced you can actually kill privet at all now.

Oh dear, what horrid oiks. But reassuring for me!

DaftyDuck

You can cut privet to the ground, and it will still grow. We used to have a privet hedge bordering on a farm track, and it was a little out of hand... Rambo would have got lost. Farmer came around at our request with a flail (industrial sized tractor & chopper) and hacked it to the ground. He then used a mini bulldozer and dug a trench along the path side. Six months later, and we had a neat young hedge again.

No, you can't kill privet. Now is a good time to cut as well.