Dragonmaster "This is not a contest" tree ligustrum privet

[Dragon60]

I just dug this tree up from the ground yesterday. With the help of others it has been identified as a ligustrum. I potted it in potting soil with a lot of bark and some lava rock. It is 18 inches tall and currently has 1 leaf! I saved it from apartment complex workers who were about to destroy it. Hopefully it will survive and grow branches.

 

[Hyn Patty]

It may make it. In my experience privets are kind of hard to kill. I know I have tried to kill some along my horse pastures for years and various chemicals, cutting them back over and over again, digging them out ... nothing worked. They just sprang back again happy as you please. Shame is I didn't keep /any/ of them for bonsai - but I hadn't returned to trying to keep bonsai again before we sold that house. They are a pretty tree but invasive as hell around here.

 

[Tycoss]

I expect it should grow back fine. Privets are supposedly pretty tough, almost like an elm or honeysuckle when it comes to recovering from chops. Look online at what Harry Harrington or or Graham Potter do with privet. It's too cold for them here, otherwise I'd get some. Then I could say "come with me behind the building, and I'll show you my privets."

 

[Dragon60]

I looked up both of those guys bonsai and all I can say is 'wow!'

 

[Dragon60]

You're right. It has started to grow back just a week later. A bud has all of a sudden appeared.

 

[sorce]

You sure it's a privet?

Just NEVER seen one without SOME evidence of opposite growth.

Sorce

 

[Dragon60]

Ok, I looked up opposite growth but confused as to what it should look like on this tree? Should there be another bud nearby?

 

[Dragon60]

Here's a branch that originally came off this tree when it was chopped down.

 

[Dragon60]

It appears to be opposite growth?

 

[Hyn Patty]

That's not like any privet that grows around here. But there are many kinds so others may know better than I what it is. Privets around here have small rounded leaves, paired opposites, but all on the same plane so they lay flat. I'm trying to air layer one right now but I only have a few more weeks at this house so I hope it's been making roots!

 

[Michael P]

Looks like glossy privet, Ligustrum lucidum. And yes, it is almost impossible to kill!

 

[Dragon60]

It had no buds that I could see a week and a half ago when it was pulled from the ground. Then the one appeared, and now it's getting covered with them. So it seems to be going strong very quickly.

 

[Michael P]

Interesting--I've never considered doing bonsai with one because they are such horrible invasive weeds here. Might be time to reconsider, it would be like having a ficus I could leave outside all winter.

 

[Hyn Patty]

Interesting--I've never considered doing bonsai with one because they are such horrible invasive weeds here. Might be time to reconsider, it would be like having a ficus I could leave outside all winter.

A good thing about horrible invasives as bonsai is that if you go and collect them, you are removing them from competing with the native plants. Then if you screw up and kill it, you don't have to feel badly about it. Just go collect another one, two, five, or as many as you like. Share them with friends. You can always pluck the flower stalks off after blooming so they don't produce berries and spread more seed around.

 

[Dragon60]

That sounds like a good plan. And I read that they have a long flowering season too. Leave the flowers for a while, but then pluck them like you said.

 

[TN_Jim]

The ID seems off to me as well. The NS/EW decussate leaf arrangement is the problem.

 

[TN_Jim]

Is it possible that this is Osmanthus x burkwoodii? This would explain decussate leaves.

 

[Michael P]

I believe Osmanthus has serrate leaves.

 

[Dragon60]

The Osmanthus x burkwoodii is of the same family but the leaves seem darker and are slightly toothed in the pics I've seen.

 

[Dragon60]

Several weeks later and it has put out some good growth. I did a little pruning and broke off a dead branch that was sticking straight out. Also found that it has a lizard friend that would not go away even while I pruned and touched it with tools. I put some cut paste on after I took photos.