6 Best Privet Bushes For Fast Growing Hedges For a Living Fence

You’ve just paced out the property line again, picturing a fence that blocks the road noise and keeps the neighbor’s curious dog out of your garden beds. A traditional fence is expensive and stark, but waiting years for a natural screen to grow feels impossible. This is where the right privet hedge comes in, offering a fast-growing, dense, and affordable living wall.

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Choosing the Right Privet for Your Living Fence

Privet has a reputation for a reason: it grows fast. Really fast. For anyone needing a quick privacy screen or a windbreak, it’s one of the most effective shrubs you can plant. They are generally tough, adaptable to a wide range of soils, and respond incredibly well to shearing, allowing you to create a sharp, formal hedge or a more natural, billowy screen.

However, you can’t talk about privet without addressing the elephant in the room: its potential for invasiveness. Many traditional varieties, like common privet, produce copious amounts of berries that birds spread far and wide, leading to unwanted thickets in woodlands and pastures. This is a serious consideration, and frankly, an irresponsible choice in many regions.

The good news is that plant breeders have developed sterile, non-invasive cultivars. This is the critical tradeoff you must weigh. Do you want the blistering speed of an old-school variety and accept the ecological risk (and local regulations), or do you choose a modern, sterile variety that might grow slightly slower but won’t cause problems down the line? Your climate, desired look, and local ecosystem should guide this decision.

Amur Privet: The Top Choice for Cold Climates

When your winters bring deep freezes and biting winds, plant selection gets serious. Amur Privet (Ligustrum amurense) is the answer for those in brutally cold climates, reliably hardy down to USDA Zone 3. It’s a workhorse that won’t flinch at temperatures that would kill lesser shrubs.

This is a deciduous privet, meaning it will drop its leaves in the fall, but its dense branching still provides a decent visual barrier in winter. It grows rapidly, easily reaching 12 to 15 feet tall if left unchecked, making it an excellent choice for a tall screen or windbreak along a field edge. It establishes quickly and requires minimal fuss once it’s in the ground. Be warned, however, that it is one of the varieties that can be invasive in some areas, so always check with your local extension office before planting.

California Privet: A Classic Semi-Evergreen

California Privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium) is what many people picture when they think of a classic, suburban hedge. Thriving in Zones 5-8, it’s a popular choice for its fine-textured leaves and its willingness to be sheared into perfect geometric shapes. Its growth is vigorous, and you can establish a 6-foot hedge in just a few years with proper care.

The term "semi-evergreen" is key here. In the warmer parts of its range, it will hold its leaves all winter, providing year-round privacy. In colder zones, like Zone 5, it will likely drop most of its foliage after the first hard freeze. This is a critical factor to consider if year-round screening is your primary goal. Like Amur Privet, it has invasive tendencies, so its use should be carefully considered.

Cheyenne Privet: Unmatched Hardiness and Vigor

Think of Cheyenne Privet (Ligustrum vulgare ‘Cheyenne’) as the rugged, improved cousin of other cold-hardy varieties. It was selected specifically for its performance on the harsh plains of the American West, making it exceptionally tolerant of cold (down to Zone 4), wind, and drought once established. It’s a tough, no-nonsense shrub for a tough environment.

Cheyenne grows in a dense, upright form, making it a natural for creating a tall, thick barrier. It’s a fast grower that can put on more than two feet of growth per year, filling in quickly to create the living fence you need. Its reliability makes it a go-to for farmsteads and larger properties where a long, functional hedge is needed without constant coddling. Again, this is a variety of common privet, so check its status in your region before committing.

Japanese ‘Texanum’ Privet: Dense, Glossy Foliage

If you want a hedge that looks a little more refined and formal, Japanese ‘Texanum’ Privet (Ligustrum japonicum ‘Texanum’) is an outstanding choice for warmer climates (Zones 7-11). Instead of the typical privet leaf, ‘Texanum’ features thick, waxy, dark green leaves that are incredibly dense. The foliage is so glossy it almost looks polished, providing a lush, evergreen backdrop year-round.

This refinement comes with a tradeoff: its growth rate is more moderate than its lankier cousins. You won’t get an overnight fence, but you will get a far more substantial and elegant-looking hedge. It’s perfect for sculpting into formal shapes and works well as a foundation planting or a property-defining hedge that stays under 10 feet tall. Because it’s often grown from cuttings, its invasive potential can be lower than seed-grown privets, but it’s still worth monitoring.

Golden Ticket Privet: A Bright, Non-Invasive Pick

Here is where modern breeding solves the classic privet problem. Golden Ticket Privet (Ligustrum x ‘NCLX1’) offers the toughness and utility of a privet without the risk of it spreading. It is a non-invasive cultivar, producing very few flowers and no viable seed. This makes it an ecologically responsible choice you can plant with a clear conscience.

Beyond its good manners, Golden Ticket is beautiful. It features vibrant yellow-green foliage that brightens up any landscape. It has a moderate growth rate and a more compact, manageable habit, typically maturing around 4-6 feet tall and wide. This makes it ideal for a low-maintenance hedge that doesn’t require constant shearing to stay in bounds. It’s the perfect blend of function, beauty, and responsibility.

Sunshine Ligustrum: A Sterile, Year-Round Gold

For a truly show-stopping, zero-effort hedge, Sunshine Ligustrum (Ligustrum sinense ‘Sunshine’) is in a class of its own. This plant is completely sterile and does not bloom at all, meaning there is zero chance of it spreading by seed. It’s the ultimate "plant it and forget it" choice from an invasive standpoint.

Its main draw is the brilliant, year-round chartreuse-to-gold foliage. To get this stunning color, you must plant it in full sun; in the shade, it will turn a dull green. It has a compact, dense habit, reaching just 3-6 feet tall, making it perfect for a vibrant border or a low privacy screen. It requires almost no pruning to maintain its shape and is naturally disease and pest-resistant. For a bright, modern, and worry-free living fence, this is the top contender.

Planting and Pruning Your New Privet Hedge

Planting a hedge is a long-term investment, and starting right is crucial. The most important step is spacing. For a dense, impenetrable screen, plant your privet shrubs about 2 to 4 feet apart, depending on the specific variety’s mature width. Staggering them in a zig-zag pattern will create an even thicker wall of green faster than a single straight line. While privets tolerate poor soil, amending your trench with compost will give them a powerful head start.

Pruning is where most people go wrong. The instinct is to let the plants grow tall first, but you must fight that urge. Start pruning your privet hedge in its first year. When the plants are young, cut them back by about a third after the initial planting. This encourages low branching and creates a dense base. If you let them shoot straight up, you’ll end up with a hedge that looks like a row of bare sticks at the bottom.

For ongoing maintenance, shear your hedge 2-3 times during the growing season. Always prune it so the base is slightly wider than the top, creating a subtle "A" shape. This allows sunlight to reach the lower branches, keeping the foliage thick and healthy all the way to the ground. This simple technique is the secret to a professional-looking hedge that lasts for decades.

A living fence does more than mark a boundary; it becomes a dynamic part of your property, offering beauty, shelter for wildlife, and a satisfying sense of permanence. By choosing the right privet for your climate and needs—especially a modern, non-invasive variety—you can create a fast-growing, functional, and beautiful screen that will serve you well for years to come.