Caring For An Original Hedge From Sanford Stadium

Q: In 1995, after the Auburn game, UGA fans were able to take some of the original hedges from Sanford Stadium since they were going to be removed for the 1996 Olympics. My father and I took one. It has grown at my parents’ lake house since then. I retrieved it last summer after my father passed. I cut it back and planted it in a 14″ pot. Greenery has really come out. Will it survive the Atlanta winter outside until I move into a house? I cherish this hedge immensely! 

A: (UGA fans will appreciate this) Privet is tougher than Nakobe Dean, the 225-pound, award-winning linebacker for the 2021 national champion University of Georgia Bulldogs. Privet can take a licking and keep on ticking. The thicket of privet behind my boyhood home survived fifty years of annually pulling out the trunks and endured several severe icy winters. It is yet undaunted. Your privet should do fine out of the ground but I think it needs a larger pot, perhaps twenty inches in diameter. Privet can grow quite large and it needs adequate root space. If you want to propagate more plants, privet is very cooperative. I have seen privet grow roots and sprout after simply being stuck into moist soil but that won’t always be successful. I have an easy method of propagating shrubs from cuttings at bit.ly/GAshrubprop.