Gardenality.com · Gardenality Genius · Zone 8A · 10° to 15° F · Comment About Planting
Plant Variegated Privet in a location that provides well-drained soil and full, all-day sun to part shade. This is a hardy, exceptionally fast growing shrub that is useful as a mid-size natural or formal hedge or background. Can also be useful as a tree-form specimen or focal point.

To plant Variegated Privet, dig a hole no deeper than the root ball and two to three times the width of the root ball and fill it with water. If the hole drains within a few hours, you have good drainage. If the water is still standing 12 hours later, improve the drainage in your bed, perhaps by establishing a raised bed. Turn and break up the soil removed from the planting hole. If the native soil is dense, compacted or heavy clay mix in a good organic compost or soil amendment at a 50/50 ratio with the soil removed from the hole. Remove your plant from its container and carefully but firmly loosen the root ball. Set the plant into the hole you've prepared, making sure the top of the root ball is slightly above the soil level. Pull your backfill soil mixture around the root ball in the hole, tamping as you go to remove air pockets. Then water thoroughly and cover with a one to two-inch layer of mulch.

Gardenality.com · Gardenality Genius · Zone 8A · 10° to 15° F · Comment About Pruning
Variegated privet does not require pruning however responds well to it. Shear as often as you like to shape or create a formal hedge. It can also be limbed up into a quite attractive small tree.

Gardenality.com · Gardenality Genius · Zone 8A · 10° to 15° F · Comment About Feeding
Feed Variegated privet in spring and again in late summer with a well-balanced shrub & tree type fertilizer.

Gardenality.com · Gardenality Genius · Zone 8A · 10° to 15° F · Comment About Problems
You won't have any insect, pest or disease problems with variegated privet. This plant is not a good choice for foundation plantings as it grows much too fast and large. It's a low maintenance plant that won't require much pruning if given room to grow to it's full size, such as in a screen planting.

Stacy L · Gardenality Sprout · Zone 8A · 10° to 15° F
We have planted these in front of our garden bed and have noticed some browning leaves. We live in zone 7 a d have prepared our bed and added composted we have clay soil..what could be causing this? Thank u

Gardenality.com · Gardenality Genius · Zone 8A · 10° to 15° F
Hi Stacy - Not sure what is causing the browning leaves. Sometimes browning leaves are a sign of constantly soggy or wet soil....sometimes dry soil. If the leaves brown quickly it's usually dry soil and slowly from the tips inward is a sign of wet soil. Check the soil moisture to be sure and adjust watering if necessary. If it's wet soil that is not drying out, you may need to lift the plants and plant them in a raised mound. I've posted a link to an article with instructions for planting shrubs in clay soil. If you mixed the compost in with the clay soil at a 50/50 or lighter ratio this should be okay. But planting in straight compost could cause problems. It could just be transplant shock. Sometimes plants will shed some leaves after planting them from a container into the ground. If this is the case, pruning the plants back by 1/3 their height can help to stimulate root growth and new foliage. Only other thing I can thinkof would be fertilizer or chemical burn, or infestation of some type of sucking insect like aphids or white flies. Check the foliage real close...especially on the undersides of leaves...to see if any insects are present. If you applied too much of a quick-release fertilizer you could flood the area with water to help dilute it. Chemical burn would usually be caused from spreading a weed & feed type fertilizer over the plants. Hope this info was helpful. Let us know how things go. - Brent