jlcoff5089
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Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:59 am
Location: hamilton, texas usa

varigated chinese privet

I have hedge row of the Chinese privet and the top are doing well, but the bottom have no or little leaves. This hedge row has about 10 bushes 5 ft. tall and are spaced 2 to 3 ft. apart. Can these be pruned back down to about 2 ft. tall in order to let more light in, thus causing new growth on bottom?

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rainbowgardener
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Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Yes, Chinese privet is an aggressive invasive that is very hardy and can handle being cut back hard.

In the future when pruning hedge, always be sure to make them wider at the base than at the top:

Image
https://www.cypressisles.org/images/image21.gif

If you trim them so they are vertical, the top shades out the bottom and you get something like this:


Image
https://www.deborahsilver.com/blog/wp-co ... 75x318.jpg

There is a very extreme example of a hedge looking like this in my neighborhood, that I walk past every day!



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