Thanks, gardengal. If you were trying to grow a five foot tall privet hedge and the young shrubs became heavily infected with powdery mildew, would you dig them up and replace them with something else such as Hicks Yew?

I would :-) But then I dislike privet in any form....most are invasive to some degree, the flowers stink and the berries are toxic. And they are prone to a range of insect and disease issues.

Just not a very good plant :-)

Thanks again, gardengal. It was a lot of work to plant them, but I don't want to be bothered spraying every year. I think part of the reason they got infected was that until about a month ago we had a large fence directly behind them; the air probably did not circulate too well.

I think a yew hedge would screen out the view of our woodpile better, but they are so much slower growing than privet, not to mention expensive (especially at box stores and nurseries).

you ought to link to the other post .... maybe i will later ...

plagues come and go ... and if i recall .. this is your first year ...

i guess i would give it a another year or two ... before i came to any conclusions ....

i would also add.. to my things in the other post [wood pile.. and fall cleanup] ... that this is a very good reason ... to avoid planting a monoculture ... the problem being.. when something happens... it happens to all of them ...

so one option.. would be to say ... remove every third one ... and interplant something other than a privet ... and as those grow to size.. keep removing more privet ...

also ... why 5 feet tall ... are you attempting a sight block.. or just hiding the wood pile ... with sight blocks.. you can often much more.. faster.. if you dont limit your planting to just at the property line ... a couple large trees between the house.. and the property line.. can block a lot more space/view ... .. than if it need all be done out at the line ...

ken

Reveal your location. This will help attract people near you to answer the question.

I also dislike privet for all the reasons GG48 mentioned. Even if they aren’t a pest in your yard, there is a high chance that birds will spread them to other areas. I remember removing privet seedlings from the garden as a kid and the nearest privets were several houses away.