Ligustrum quihoui

Ligustrum quihoui, the waxyleaf or Quihou privet, saves the family's best trick for last. Where most privets flower in late spring, this species from northern and central China waits until late summer and even early autumn, then covers itself in long, airy panicles of small creamy-white flowers, sweetly and unmistakably fragrant. In a season when the flowering shrubs are mostly finished, that late show is worth a good deal.

Privets belong to the olive family, Oleaceae, alongside lilac, forsythia, and the olive itself, and share the family habit of fragrant, four-petaled flowers followed by small fruits, here blue-black berries that ripen in fall. The genus name Ligustrum is the old Latin word for privet, likely rooted in ligare, to bind, from the ancient use of the pliant twigs in basketry and tying. The epithet honors Antoine Quihou, a nineteenth-century French gardener at the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris.

In the garden the waxyleaf privet makes a dense, upright, semi-evergreen shrub of eight to twelve feet, easily kept as a clipped or informal hedge, a screen, or a single specimen prized for late fragrance. One honest caution: privets are vigorous, and birds spread the seed, so in parts of the Southeast Ligustrum species have naturalized and turned weedy. Check the situation locally before planting near wild land, deadhead spent flowers to limit seeding, and site the shrub where any seedlings can be managed.

Grown thoughtfully, the plant is tough and obliging. Full sun to part shade and almost any well-drained soil will do, from chalk to clay, and once established the privet stands up to heat and drought. The glossy dark leaves make a quiet backdrop for showier plants through the year, then the late flowers draw bees and butterflies, and the fall berries feed birds. Shear for a formal look or let the shrub arch naturally, whichever the setting asks.