Upland Swamp Privet

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a medium grower, like our swamp privet, about a foot and a half a year. It makes a shrub up to about 10 feet tall and nearly as wide, deciduous or half evergreen, with gray-green leaves and little fall color.

Tiny yellowish flowers without petals open from June to August, after the leaves are out. Male and female flowers grow on separate plants.

It grows wild from Kentucky and Tennessee south to Florida and west to Texas. Its homes are limestone glades and rocky woods, granite outcrops, sandy stream banks, dunes and the edges of swampy woods. Limestone quarries and clearing for timber threaten some of its wild sites. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Arkansas, at the western edge of its range.

How to grow Upland Swamp Privet

Upland swamp privet grows in full sun or part shade, in soil that drains well. In the wild it grows on thin soil over limestone that is wet in winter and dry by late summer. Set plants 5 feet apart and keep them 5 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

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 crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. It is sown as swamp privet is. Sow the ripe fruit in early fall, as soon as it turns blue-black, pulp and all.

Water weekly through the first summer and in dry spells until it is established. Where deer are common, cage young plants for their first winters. It needs little pruning beyond cutting out dead stems in late winter.

Plants are male or female, and only females bear fruit, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. The blue-black fruit ripens in early fall, and it is shorter and plumper than the fruit of our swamp privet.