Rebuilding a privet hedge?

I started to prune a privet hedge and found much of the inner parts of it were dead wood and Ivy. I contacted some Hedge advertisers one of which suggested, "Ligustrum ovalifolium" and later I read that it can lose its leaves in winter so I wonder if that is a real problem.
Having said that I would like to fill the gaps in my hege with Privet that can achieve at least six foot in height and grows fast. Please say so if that's an impossible wish.

 

Hi A photo would be ideal ...

Privet does respond well to a good prune ( I would leave till February early March to prune) also it will help if you can clear out all the dead material and ivy also any grass at the base... all privet if a harsh winter ie minus 5 will lose the leaves ...

Privet is a heavy feeder so a blood fish and bone sprinkled around the base of each plant in late March is ideal ... but after feeding and maybe watering during dry spells it does bounce back .. in a previous house that had a privet hedge planted in the 1950's the lady across the road told me who had lived in her house all her life ..... I heavy pruned over two years reduced one side in width and height ... and the following year done the same on the other side but lots of feed and water in dry spells .... totally re invigorated the whole hedge

you can take hardwood cuttings now (google that) to in-fill as it best to use the same plant material other wise if you buy plants they may have a different leaf shape, colour and growth rate .

Its best not to let privet grow too quickly to 6 feet as it can get top heavy and the the branches not strong enough, can get moved about in the wind and even worse snow ending up with a leaning hedge ....

Hope you find useful

Spruce

 

Hi,

Would also like to ask for advice in this thread regarding our Golden Privet hedge.

It must be more than ten years old, kept to about 4ft high and its steadily grown width wise to about 3ft+.

We really need thin it down width wise as its going over the pavement, so we could do as @Spruce suggests doing one side one year etc.

However we also have a problem with reversion which we have previously tried to prune out but it does seem to leave holes in the canopy for more than a year.
In the last couple of years the reversion has become much more widespead so we were wondering if a complete very heavy pruning, say down to a central core about 2ft high and a foot wide would quickly recover, overcoming both the reversion and overgrowth in one go ?

We are not worried if the hedge is small for a few years, more that it creates a good canopy quickly after the prune rather than looking like a pile of bare twigs for years !