Privet cuttings

I have a few bare and a few dead patches in my privet which is allowing access to dogs from the other side. I've tried cutting branches off the privet and sticking them in the ground but this didn't work.

So my question is, How do I grow some privet from cuttings successfully, so that I can fill in these gaps.

Ill also add that I'm almost completely new to cuttings and I've never done it successfully before, so please try and use beginners terms.

 

Is the bare patch alive on the tops but bare and leggy at the base? If so, you can revive the bare stems and make them bush out low down by means of hard pruning. It might do the job and be a lot quicker than cuttings.

If it's completely dead you will have to take out the dead section and replace.

It's a bit late to take summer cuttings, perhaps someone will come along soon and tell you about hardwood cuttings which can be done in the autumn. I've never done those myself.

The quickest option would be to buy a few new plants if you only need a few.

 

You don't absolutely need it, but a pot of fresh hormone rooting powder helps.

I normally take a branch off the main stem, leaving a "heel" on the base of it. Stick several of them in a 6 inch pot & put a plastic bag over it.

Kristen will be along shortly to tell you how to do it properly

 

You rang Me Lud?

Sorry, but if you need plants (rather than a hard prune) I'd buy them.

A cutting taken now might make a 1L pot sized plant by next Autumn, that's pretty small to plant into a hedge as in-fill, so more realistically I'd say the plant would be ready the following year. If you can wait that's fine, if not then you already needed to have taken the cutting a couple of years ago :( ... or to buy plants now.

But the good news is that Privet is one of the easier things to root, so if you want to go that route then (perhaps with a little help & advice from folk here) it should be straightforward.

 

ill take some pictures tomorrow so you can see what I need to fill in. it will be easier to show you than to explain.

 

That works for me

 

here you go some of the photos are hard to judge but the holes in photo 1, 3 and 4 are all big enough to fit a medium sized dog through the other photos are areas which need a new hedge all together.