Ligustrum Species, Chinese Privet

It should be called "#1 allergen bush". It will clog your sinuses like a rubber stopper, cause pain throughout your face, and make your ...Read Morewhole skull throb. It happens every year. We've cut almost all of them down along our house. Plant this only if you're about to move and want to provide an unpleasant surprise for the new owners.

Here around Buenos Aires, Argentina and north it is a very invasive plant. Something unusual has happened in the past 10 or so years: bir...Read Moreds find the fruits palatable and eat large quantities of them spreading the seeds with their droppings.
In the past birds were indiferen t to the fruits so this occurrence is dreadful.

Seedlings have tenacious roots and unlike many other plants can not be dug easily at this stage and requires the use of a tool, making the process labor and time consuming.

The plant is fine and the scent wonderful but the environmental threat such as to make its introduction to gardens in mild to warm climates an imprudence.

For years we've battled chinese privet here in south Alabama. My father despised it and I've grown weary of pulling trees up with my jee...Read Moreps. It grows relentlessly and is spread ridiculously easy .

But, I've finally found an excellent aspect of it. Honey bees LOVE it and make some of the tastiest, whitest, very nice honey from it's nectar (unlike the northern variety of privet that makes a terrible honey). It would be interesting if people who were allergic to the blooms tried some of this honey for a while...might take care of those allergies. ??

I guess if we look long enough and hard enough we can find a silver lining to most dark clouds. :)

Yes, this plant is a pain in the rear in keeping under control in your garden. They cause severe allergic reactions, overtake any native ...Read Moreplant in a matter of months and is a the most time consuming foliage ever when it come to pulling new seedlings from your yard. But yes people, there actually is a plus side!! One of the few (if not only) things this plants is great for is having as a bonsai tree. If you take the time to cultivate it the way you desire, it can turn into one of the most beautiful home decoration plants ever, especially when its in bloom. Also, because of it's "miniature" mature state, pollen and seed control are as easy as a hand broom and dustpan and take less time than tying your shoes does. So, my advice, burn this plant if its even casting a shade in you yard/garden, but dont forsake it completely. Take it for what its worth....

The Chinese Privets have added beauty and interest to our gardens. We grow a variety of fruits, and have many plants and trees. Our objec...Read Moretive was to also make this a bird sanctuary. However, this year I have had the worse allergic reaction to the Chinese Privet blossoms, ever. I am ready to have them all cut down. We have a total of 8 mature trees and it will be hard to convince my husband to destroy them. But for four days now, I have been cooped up in my home and still feeling awful! It was suggested to remove the blossoms, but in our case who would have the time to do the pruning?

i actually love this i think im the only one.lol we have a hedge of it with wisteria, early honeysuckle, trumpet vines.. and who knows w...Read Morehat else. we prune the branches that come into the yard. it has not taken over anything and hundreds of birds live in there. i have roses planted about 4 ft from it and all are happy. of course wed have 3 extra feet of yard if it were gone but the cardinals and robins and other birds make it worth it.

Looks pretty from afar... Smells somewhat sweet and floral. Nothing else good to say.

My neighbor has one next to the fe...Read Morence. It must be about 35 feet tall. The FLOWERS litter our backyard most of July and August. In one day the falling flowers will cover everything under the tree. The yellow-cream pollen stains and gets everywhere. Makes much of our backyard useless (because I get tired of cleaning it).

It gets worse... In the fall the BERRIES or FRUIT start falling. They are dark purplish, about 5mm. They get everywhere and stain worse than the pollen. They stained the concrete. I could not pressure wash some of the stains off. And they are Poisonous? Is that what killed my dog a few years ago?

I have cut along the fence line. It grows back fast. The sprouts, volunteers, or whatever grow fast and everywhere. Easy to pull out, just hundreds of them.

Allergies caused by this tree have kicked my butt this year. If I did not have an anti-histamine, I think I would be dead. The anti-histamine helps, I can breath, but still feeling worn out.

Obnoxious, yes the best way to describe it. My neighbor likes the tree... But now he is renting the house to others and does not live there. We have asked him a couple times to replace it, we said we would pay for it. He wavers. Don't plant this tree nothing good will come from it. Sorry for ranting. I will try to add pictures.

A couple weeks after my first post, we talked to him and he agreed it makes a mess and gave us permission to cut it down. It is being cut down right now. :)

Bought 5 of these little 'twigs' at 12" tall to make an informal border against a fence, now 3 yrs later they are 6' tall and 3' wide eac...Read Moreh. Seemingly indifferent to soil type they love full sun. I found their growth dramatically hindered in partial shade as the 5th one I planted in PS has only grown to 2' tall. A very strong shrub regardless.

So far I have been able to contain them in my yard for my purposes, although the wild birds do love the berries, which contain the seeds...

Petersburg, Virgina, Zone 7. Our house turns sixty-one this year, but I don't know how old the ligustrum are. Some have attractive trun...Read Moreks when limbed up, and I will keep them. Others will have to go to make room for other trees that need space. I haven't noticed runners but seedlings come up all over the yard. When tiny, they are easy to pull up. I think the blossoms did make me sneeze this year.

The very qualities that have made ligustrums desirable in suburban landscaping - glossy evergreen leaves, rapid growth, attractive blooms...Read More, hardiness, adaptability to shaping - have made it a nuisance in wild areas. Its persistent foliage means that it blocks the sun all year from native plants, and its rapid growth means that it outcompetes them. I'm sure it's perfectly lovely in eastern Asia, its native region (in fact, I'd love to see it among its natural plant associations), but here in Texas it usurps living space from native plants that have been here for millennia, often completely dominating woodlands so that little else can grow.

I know it's almost impossible to get rid of this plant once established. I cut several down when I bought my house & dug up 2 large stump...Read Mores with a pick ax; the rest I keep trimmed. I usually trim it back severely before it flowers so I don't have to worry about the seeds. Some people enjoy the fragrance but I HATE the way it smells!

AMEN you are preaching to the choir. My grandpa planted it as a property border at the fence. What a mistake. we had it back hoed off up ...Read Moreto the fence. Now every spring and all season we have to chop!! Hack!!. Chain Saw!! and pull up every stump off shoot and spread seed for more than 200ft from the main fence line. Nothing works and Heaven help you if you only trim any growths to the ground thinking that'll do it.. it grows enormous trunk under ground and just spreads further from there. We even use the lawn mower with a chain to pull these things up it is a never ending battle.

I would not advise anyone to plant this in the yard. We moved into our house a year ago and I am still fighting to eliminate this plant/b...Read Moreush. I have researched and have found nothing effective at removing the seedlings outside of plucking the seedlings out of the ground and chopping down full grown plants. Once the seedlings have taken root, they become hard woody stems in the yard when, if stepped on barefoot will be painful. We almost can't use our backyard because of this obnoxious invasive plant!!!!

It seems that I'm always pulling-up these invasive bushes. Uhhhg! I wouldn't deliberately add them to your yard unless you trim them re...Read Moreligiously to avoid their seeds reaching the ground after they bloom. This is considered a pest in Georgia, like kudzu....both are from China and will do their best to take over the world. ;) There's actually a group that volunteers time time in some Georgia parks to eradicate this plant. It will take over a forest. DO NOT PLANT THIS BUSH/TREE.

I agree 100% with most of you that this is a horrible, invasive and nearly-impossible-to-get-rid-of nuisance. However...I have managed t...Read Moreo hack and chop and drill and saw them out of my small, townhouse flowerbed. (These things make roots the size of a normal person's thigh...) The only reason I gave them a neutral rating is that where the seeds have sprouted outside of my wall they are a really lovely groundcover. I keep them sheared about 18 inches to two feet tall on a steep, rocky hillside under some large Live Oak trees. Hardly anything else will grow well in the shade, but this ligustrum provides a tough, completely drought tolerant cover which is lush and dark green year round. I mow the lawn area that it surrounds and just keep mowing down any stray seedlings. They've not been a problem and with water restrictions in San Antonio during the hottest months, I'm actually kind of glad to find something that looks healthy, even when I can't water it.

I include the caveat that this stuff seeds itself freely and if left unchecked, it will grow huge and ugly. But if you keep it sheared low, it doesn't make seed and is a very satisfactory ground cover for difficult areas.

We had one of these in our yard when I was a child and it was very well behaved. No problem with invasion at all, but I'm not sure that w...Read Moreasn't because it was isolated with nothing else beside it. The blooms are incredibly fragrant and attract all sorts of bees and butterflies. Actually, the bees were the biggest problem it caused - ow!

We also had glossy privet which was more problematic. It grew to over 30' and ran the length of the property. But the blooms and berry clusters were different from the Chinese Privet.

For the fragrance it's wonderful, but given all the negative comments it might best be contained.

Chinese Privet Ligustrum sinense is naturalized in Texas and other States and is considered an invasive plant in Texas.

AMEN i feel yall's pain! i just spent my whole thanksgivin break clearin this weed out of my grandpa's yard and thanks to this "wonderfu...Read Morel" plant i got a nice batch of redbugs (chiggers) because of it on my arms and legs.

I would rather be fighting poison ivy!! Cutting, digging, spraying does no good, and the runners seem to go forever and only stop when t...Read Morehey find an established shrub to come up in the middle of. It's like it is hiding and once it gets in your hedges it is almost impossible to get out without removing your bushes. It has taken over a number of yards in our neighborhood.

In zone 8, east coast, N.C. this plant is considered a noxious plant. It spreads like bamboo. Both my neighbors on each side of me, ha...Read Moreve them as hedges they planted them) and the roots extend into my yard. Parts of my St. Augustine grass has b een killed by it. both my son and I are slaves to keeping the pesky plants out of your grass. A big job\

Do not plant, unless you want horrible results.

This plant is indeed allergenic and can cause episodes for asthmatics when blooming. It is in the same family as Olive and Ash. If you ...Read Morehave allergy tested positive to either, then you ARE allergic to this plant too by cross reactivity (the same allergens are produced). This fact (cross reactivity) is not well explained to us by our beloved allergists. I used to think it smelled good too, but I now know the smell is BAD NEWS! When it's blooming, RUN... and hire someone to whack it for you. Good news... it only causes A&A when it's blooming and you can have the flowers trimmed off and it won't cause (allergy) problems.

This plant is growing on the other side of my back fence, which is a sort of no-man's land. I did not realize it was so noxious and have ...Read Morenot had any problems with it, surprisingly enough, but maybe the lack of water has kept it at bay. The house sat empty for over a year before we moved in, so the yard went was really neglected...you should see the popcorn trees, dandelions and blackberry brambles! Oy!

Anyway, I only have a few problems with this plant since it does not seem to be invasive in my yard yet.... (1) Like any other ligustrum it draws bees like crazy. (2) It also seems to draw some sort of biting fly similar to yellow fly, but white and black instead of butter yellow. (3) It has a root system that is a booger...I was trying to plant a corkscrew willow on my side of the fence and had a heck of a time getting through the roots this thing had sent out my way. (4) It seems to evoke major allergic reactions similar to hayfever in my household.

Capt Midnight a few others are confusing this plant with
Ligustrum lucidum (Glossy privet) which is also invasive and will grow 15...Read More to 40 ft. tall. Sinensis generally is under 15 feet tall and has small semi-evergreen leaves while L. lucidum has 2 to 5 in. long and 1 to 3 wide evergreen leaves. Both species produce glossy blue-black berries eaten by birds.

Getting rid of an established ligustrum is a lot of work. The only successful strategy I know of is to cut it as close to the ground as p...Read Moreossible and then spend the next 2-3 years removing the new growth that the stump and root system send up. This is just one of those out-of-control plants that you wish had never been introduced to N America.

I was surprised to see the maximum height as only 12'. My neighbor has one at my fenceline almost 40' tall, and I have been trying to ki...Read Morell 3 others in various locations on my property. One of mine was 20' plus. While it has pleasant smelling flowers and pretty foliage, and seems to be popular with butterflies, it's abundant growth makes it a nuisance. I cannot find a use for this plant other than a high maintenance ornamental, and since none of the wildlife EXCEPT butterflies seem to use it for anything, I cannot justify its presence in my yard.
I tried burning the dried wood, but it's nasty. I advise against planting it without containment, if at all.

A pesky shrub that creates thickets all around our property. A stray seedling can quickly become a vigorously-growing shrub, and a real ...Read Morenuisance to extricate from garden beds.

I've identified my invasive bushes on my property as this bush.... as the roots come near the surface it produces another bush and anothe...Read Morer... and another.... invasive is a understatement. The roots run just under the surface of the ground for amazing lengths, springing up more bushes quite a distance from it's parent plant or in rows running off from the parent. You could actually chop off a section of the root, partly bury it and it would produce a new bush, too bad it's not a attractive bush... tiny flowers/short bloom time/ prone to insect damage & disease and it's INVASIVE. Who thought planting this was a good idea?

I checked the zip code box because this plant grows in my area...but I do not grow it on my property.

Terribly invasive an...Read Mored nearly impossible to get rid of.

Although it is very pretty in mid spring when it blooms...it only means that it is preparing to unleash gazillions of little berries (which are poisionous, by the way) upon the fields and fencerows of this area.

Avoid it at all costs.

This small evergreen tree is second in my opinion only to kudzu as the worst southern weed. It forms a dense understory in wodlands, some...Read Moretimes so thick that it chokes out native understory vegatation. A real nuisance that should be avoided at all costs!!! The variegated form is not invasive and so if you must have a Chinese Privet, grow it. However, any green shoots it produces need to be pruned off.

I voice a loud "Amen" to all the others who have said how invasive this plant is!
If it ever gets on your soil you can
nev...Read Moreer get rid of it and believe me YOU
DO NOT WANT IT. I have tried every way known to me to get rid of this pest and
it only encourages it's growth. I causes
hay fever or allergies to some unfortunate people in addition to all the other "headaches" it produces also. So if a little bird brings you a seed--remove
the little plant while you can.

This plant is a disaster. It has almost taken over the woods behind my house. I cant cut it down fast enough. Foliar herbicides sprays do...Read More not work. The cut stump treatment is the only way to get rid of it. Small seedlings can be pulled up by hand after the ground is wet.

Ligustrum sinense is listed as a Category I Exotic Pest Plant in all sections of Florida. It is very invasive. Though I have listed it ...Read Morefor my area, I DO NOT GROW IT!

There is a variegated form which is much more attractive than the solid green, BUT I still would never grow it.

This ligustrum can become a pain. While this fast growing import has beautiful glossy evergreen (in Texas) leaves, sweet smelling flowers...Read More, and a nice bark, it is invasive at best. The trees in front of my house spent no less than four months developing hundreds of thousands of small purple drupes which have thoroughly covered my and my neighbor's yards, as well as clogging my gutters. To make it worse, nearly every one of those drupes has gone to seed, providing never ending sprouts even in the most dense portions of my yard.Pre-emergents seem to have little affect. These trees have invaded creek drainages throughout central Texas and do not appear to provide much to the habitat in exchange. If it was not for their height (30+ft) and ample shade they provide, I would have cut them down long ago. Avoid these plants at all costs.