Swamp Privet

Size, growth and what to expect

No source we read rates its growth, so our growth estimator uses its middle figure, about a foot and a half a year. Expect a spreading shrub or small tree of 8 to 30 feet.

Yellow flower clusters open along the bare branches in late March and April, before the leaves. They feed bees and other insects just out of winter. Female trees ripen purple, olive-like fruit half an inch to an inch long in June. Songbirds and nesting waterfowl eat it, and it is a good wild duck food.

It grows wild from South Carolina and Florida west to eastern Texas, and north to southern Indiana and Illinois, Missouri, southeastern Kansas and Oklahoma. It is most common in the Mississippi Valley. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Kansas, at the edge of its range.

How to grow Swamp Privet

Swamp privet grows best in wet ground, in part shade or sun. It takes soggy soil and even standing water. It spreads into a small colony from its roots, so give it room at the water's edge. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and at least 15 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 10 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Sow the ripe fruit as soon as it falls in June, pulp and all. It sprouts within a few days. Give the seedlings sun, and in the North shelter them through their first winter.

Water weekly through the first summer unless the ground stays wet. Deer and rabbits browse young trees, so cage them for the first two or three years. Cut root sprouts at the ground wherever you want a single trunk rather than a thicket.

Trees are male or female, and only females bear fruit, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. A planting grown only for the flowers can be all males, which carry the showier bloom. None of the sources we read names a serious pest or disease.