Japanese Privet

Japanese privet is the dense, fast-growing evergreen shrub that has been planted as hedging, screening, and foundation material across the milder parts of Western Washington for decades. The glossy, dark green leaves are thick and leathery, and the plant responds to shearing with dense regrowth that creates an impenetrable visual barrier. In midsummer, terminal clusters of small, creamy-white, fragrant flowers appear, followed by blue-black berries that birds distribute throughout the landscape. Native to Japan and Korea, it grows ten to twelve feet with an upright, dense habit.

In Western Washington, Japanese privet performs well in sun to part shade and adapts to a wide range of soils. It is one of the fastest ways to create a tall, evergreen screen, and it tolerates heavy shearing better than most broadleaf evergreens. The fragrance of the flowers is strong, pleasant to some, cloying to others. Several diseases and pests are tracked, but healthy plants in reasonable sites are largely trouble-free. The management consideration is the self-seeding: birds eat the berries and deposit seedlings throughout the garden and nearby natural areas, which raises invasiveness concerns. Check the weed status in your county before planting. For a fast, dense, evergreen hedge or screen where invasiveness is not a concern, Japanese privet delivers.