Missouri Botanical 
Garden Bulletin 
Vol. XII MARCH, 1924 No. 3 
FROZEN HEDGES AND ROSES AND THEIR 
TREATMENT 
When plants are damaged by some unusual insect. pest, 
disease or mechanical injury, and the damage is widespread, 
the Garden is always asked for a statement concerning such 
injury. This winter the California privet ( Ligustrum ovali- 
folium) has, in most places, been frozen, and numerous in- 
quiries as to what to do have been received at the Garden. 
Some of these hedges have already been cut down to the 
ground, and the owners of similar hedges have been wonder- 
ing whether theirs should be cut also or whether theirs were 
hardier and not in need of such drastic treatment. The pur- 
pose of this article is to describe the injury to the California 
privet and roses during the past season and to suggest treat- 
ment. 
When the word hedge is used one generally thinks of the 
California privet. This is because in St. Louis and vicinity 
this privet has been planted almost exclusively for hedge pur- 
poses. It thrives in practically all soils; the smoke does not 
affect it; and it is fairly hardy. The number of years inter- 
vening between killing freezes is usually sufficient to cause 
most people to forget that California privet will not live 
through every winter without injury. These hedges have not 
been frozen back for about seven years, but this year they 
suffered greatly. The freezing back is not always due to the 
low temperature alone but to the suddenness or unusual con- 
ditions attending the cold spell. The mild weather of Decem- 
ber, 1923, caused the sap of most plants to be active. The last 
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