My backyard just behind the deck where the bees are is full of privet hedge. Here you see a small part of the privet hedge.
The flowers are on every branch and are just beginning to bloom. I saw bees in the privet today, but they were too high in the hedge for me to get a picture.
Here is privet in bud.
Here are opened flowers - aren't they beautiful and they smell lovely as well. Privet, however, is an invasive plant and is considered a weed in Georgia.
Your backyard looks lovely Linda with all those trees in the back ground. Privet is a noxious weed here in NZ also, it grows anywhere in out temperate climate and when it is flowering people with asthma or other breathing difficulties really suffer. A friend of mine who happens to be Irish, grows it as a hedge but always cuts the flowers off so it doesn`t spread - it makes a lovely hedge but I don`t know about the nice smell, I think it stinks !!
ReplyDeleteMaybe you have a different variety in New Zealand. Ours is certainly a weed, but it smells sweet and I wouldn't use the word "stink" to apply to it at all.
ReplyDeleteHope you are doing well after your surgery....
Best wishes, Linda
I have tons of Privet hedge on my property here in N. Alabama, and I'm a little bit afraid after some things I have read. Some people claim the privet hedge makes the honey taste bad, others love it. Is this an opinion thing or are there different varieties or something? What people call 'privet hedge' here can grow ten or twenty feet high and really looks like a tree.
ReplyDeleteOh, and this is my first year keeping bees so I am especially nervous!
There are over 50 verities of ligustrum (privet hedge). Some verities make very little nectur and some make a lot. Some make a very light, almost clear, very sweet smelling, think perfume, honey. The Chinese privet hedge (ligustrum sinense) does that. It grows into a small tree 15 to 20 feet high. Ligustrum ovalifolium makes a dark, somewhat bitter, honey. This is the privet hedge most people are familiar with as it comes from around the Mediterranean and grows to about 10 feet high and everyone makes hedges with it. The best honey producer by far is ligustrum japonicum. Grows into a 30 to 40 foot tall tree and gives a light golden honey with a lite floral taste. Very productive in July in SC when very little else is blooming.
ReplyDeleteWe have some 50 Year Old+ Ligustrum lucidum(Chinese Privet) here in N. California, and they are about 30’ tall with great branch form; I’ve read they make outstanding Bonsai, and I can see that potential, but we’ve gone the other direction with our gargantuan specimens.
ReplyDeleteThese, along with Lavenders, save our Bee’s bacon in August at the outset of our late Summer/Fall nectar dearth due to dryness.
Makes deep, dark shade too.
This plant does have a fair amount of seedlings below it, but they’re easy to eliminate; and birds spread them a bit but they’re easily mown when young.
I like the fragrance a lot, fortunately.