This is very helpful. Thanks.

Do you think covering a stump that keeps trying to resprout would do the trick? There’s one growing right beside a rose bush that keeps trying to crowd it out. Would it hurt the rose bush to cover it?

Hm…you bring an interesting perspective.

I very much would like to never see any privet again in this area. Along with mimosa, tree of heaven, and kudzu. If you can’t tell already I’m from the Southeastern US, haha.

It is an uphill “battle” and yeah, doubtful I could win in actually removing all these plants for good. It’s frustrating to see how they destroy native plants that are useful and important to me and the creatures around me. I do think they have an overall negative impact on the biodiversity of the area, but I didn’t know about its medicinal uses. It’s easy to get into that mindset that it’s entirely negative. But you’re right, I’ve gotta try and see it holistically.

My main gripe with Privet in particular is that it’s growing in the middle of other plants. I’ve got a Jerusalem artichoke, fig bush, and scuppernong bush it’s trying to crowd out. I’d be worried about altering the soil composition for the sake of the plants that are already there that I’m trying to save.

It seems that its favorite place to grow is in disturbed forest, but it’s a very opportunistic plant and will grow outside of that, including in other plants. Sigh

Edit: I didn’t mention explicitly that it’s an invasive introduced to the area along with the other plants I mentioned. Just wanted to clarify that.

Great idea. I’ve tried poisoning it with glyphosphate (I’m not a fan of poison either). I didn’t think of drilling holes, so I’ll have to try that. Thanks for your advice.

I think it’s small leaf privet. It also goes by the name of “Chinese Privet” here. This is in the Southeastern US.

While there’s plenty of annoying seedlings, the cut stumps are my main problem. They like to grow in the middle of other already established plants. I’ve even tried poisoning the stumps, which I hate to do but I felt I had no other choice. It still came back.

I live in the Southeastern US. It was originally introduced here as a hedge plant as well. Unfortunately it’s gotten wildly out of control and is very invasive. It crowds out other plants, cultivated and wild. I have a Jerusalem artichoke plant that it has a stump in the middle of and it keeps trying to grow higher than it to share it out.