How to grow my privet quickly

Hi all, hope you don't mind a new member posting a 'please help me' post straight away, but you look a friendly bunch here, and I couldn't find a direct answer to my questions when I searched the forum, so here goes..

I'm replacing a large but mostly dead conifer hedge that came with my new house with privet. I have 216 bare root plants currently growing in 10 litre poly-bags. Most are growing okay, I did a little pruning when I planted them in April. They are around 40-60cms.

I really want these to grow as quickly as possible, I expect to plant them out early 2020, and don't want to wait long before I have a private garden again.

Right now they look like they are starting to flower. Should I snip these buds off as I suspect flowering will waste the plants energy, when they could be using that to just 'grow'.

Also, any recommendation for feeding them? I mixed granulated feed in the soil/compost, but I suspect they could take more food.

Anything else I should be doing, apart from keeping them watered, etc?

Thank you in advance...

 

Welcome to the forum Tony.
The first thing I would do is prepare the ground well where you want to plant this hedge. The conifers will have depleted the soil. Dig over and add some good organic muck- well rotted horse poo, leaf mould, or whatever else you can get.
Once that job is done, and as long as you can keep the plants watered, there is no reason why you can`t plant them out now. Privet is very tough, and grows quickly without much molly coddling, does not really need too much feeding and should be well established and needing a cut by 2020. Maybe you are trying too hard

 

Hiya Tony....warm welcome

I would trim off those flowers....they take energy from the plants. Besides they arent the most attractive. Not only that, I would prune them back on every stem to further thicken them.

I would plant out before 2020....why the delay? I assume you are using mpc in those bags......it wont sustain growth for another couple of years. I would prefer to plant them in some spare ground if you have it. They will grow much better. They will lift again quit easily in 18 months or so.

When you remove the conifers dig in as much bulky organic matter as possible. And add fish blood and bone.

I like privet....well maintained it makes a nice dense hedge.

 

What`s up with the flowers then Verdun? I think they`re great, and have a perfume all of their own.... not only that, they remind me of my childhood 136 years ago

 

Hi @TonyR to GC and nice to have you with us

Besides the good advice members have given also... I thought this video may also help.

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Hiya Tetters. Flowers are fine....once the plants are established.
I have a golden privet...single specimen....and it is a real beauty. Foliage is butter yellow and I love it.....removing the flowers, of course!

 

I like Privet flowers too @Tetters . They remind me of miniature Lilac.

 

Aureomarginatum do you mean? I have several, complete with gorgeous white flowers

 

Ah, brilliant, thanks for the advice. I'm not planting out yet as the conifer hedge is very tall and provides a great privacy screen to our corner garden. I therefore want the privets to be as large as possible before I plant them.

Yes, the ground is terrible, and I’m going to have to work out a way of improving this nearer the time. Luckily we have plenty of horses nearby so some well rotten muck should be available. Perhaps dig in over winter 2019 and plant the next spring?

I originally snipped off most stems to make them branch out, which seemed to have worked. I think the advice here confirms my suspicion that I should try and stop it from flowering by snipping them again.

I know the effort we're putting into this might seem over the top, but the aim is to be without a privacy screen for as short a time as possible. If I can cut this by a couple of years then it’s worth it.

Will the soil/compost mix they are in stop working soon? Won’t good feeding sort that or do I need to do something else next year to this? I assumed they'd be happy in these pots. I don’t have spare ground to plant them in unfortunately.

 

Aureum Tetters. Solid yellow leaves. A freebie too. as good as most yellow flowering shrubs
Ha ha, I trim it twice every year into a dome so those (wonderful) flowers dont appear

 

Haven`t got aureum

 

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear

 

Stoppit you`re just rubbing it in - trying to make me sad.

 

I`m sure your privet will be fine with just a little granular feed from time to time and a bit of talking to

 

Tetters you've loosed yourself in it there mate ...all I can do is you recover from doing it