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Chinese Privet (Rhamnus, Hawthorn, Cotoneaster and Barberry)
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Remove Chinese Privet with Cut'n'Paste Weed Gels
Chinese Privet, Tree Privet, Rhamnus (Evergreen Buckthorn) Hawthorn, Cotoneaster and Barberry can all be killed with Cut'n'Paste Weed Killers. Chinese Privet is a tough shrubby tree weed. Introduced from the UK where it is a well behaved hedging plant. It has now gone wild throughout NZ forming dense clumps in many areas of regenerating bush and plantings. It spreads by seed carried by birds.
All of the nasty weeds - Chinese Privet, Tree Privet, Rhamnus (Evergreen buckthorn), Hawthorn, Cotoneaster, Barberry - even Blackberry - thrive in open ground and along edges where soil life is lacking. They all follow the similar pattern in their weediness and the methodology for controlling and killing them is also similar: Cut'n'Paste Weed Gels.
All are tough woody weeds that require care and attention to detail to kill.
Chinese Privet Is easily identified by it’s clusters of small white flowers in Earl to Late Spring and it’s attractive small dark green leaves. See the link below for a full description
Go to NZ Plant Conservation Network to see detailed description os these weeds at this link.
Cut any of these aforementioned trees/shrubs, as close to the ground as you can with a flat level horizontal cut using a saw. Paste the stump ASAP after cutting with a 3mm layer of Bamboo Buster Weed Gel or Glimax. Where there are exposed roots, scarf the bark and treat the exposed wood with gel. It pays to apply some gels to the edges the stump too around the exposed edge of the bark. This area has most phloem tissue that takes sap down into the roots.
Our double strength Glyphosate based Bamboo Buster Weed Gel is the preferred gel, but our triple strength Glimax will also be effective. Picloram Weed Gel is also very effective, but it’s ground residual and can spread through soil to affect other nearby plants – so must be used with care near any plants you value.
Privet is treated in the same way as cotoneaster and many other highly coppicing shrubby trees. If you cut any of them down without treating they grow back stronger and thicker with off-shoots and coppicing, and then present a much great problem that is harder to kill.
Do the job once and do it well
