On Sun, 22 Mar 2015 22:59:02 -0400, songbird
wrote:

micky wrote:
...
That sounds very good. Easier and if it does grow, yeah, it wouldn't be
limited by what happened to what's been cut off. And it will
definitely be the same species!

it's worth a try.


So, I'm in Baltimore. The middle or end of April too soon? May or
June too late?

i'd do it soon, make a clean cut and angle it
so that the water will run off it. it should

I looked at the bush again, and I see t here are a whole bunch of
stems/trunks, so I'll cut them all off in similar ways.

sprout out from the stem within a few weeks of
when the other plants show new growth. if it
doesn't then you can do all that digging and
chopping at the roots.

Right.

privet will root from stems, so what you cut
back can be used to start new plants. at least
some of the pieces should take. this would
also give you the same variety plants to use if
the cutting back doesn't resprout (though i've
really never heard of privet being that
difficult to grow). if you want to give this a
try, just take some spare containers and fill
them with your soil (no need for special potting
mix), take all of the leaves off if there are
any on them and then stick them in the dirt.
keep them moist and in the shade and you should
have some new plants in four weeks. you'll
know they're good when you see leaves coming out.

Thanks again. I'll do that, at least for the possibilty the bush will
die. Then I'll also have the same species.

My mother once cut some bushes down to a foot, and I was 14 and sure she
was killing them. IIRC, they never did grow back right, but otoh, we
were only there 5 more years. And they weren't privets. I'm sure the
instructions she got were good for some bushes, but maybe not ours. I
guess maybe she did it because they had gotten too tall to trim.


songbird