Ligustrum ibota Musli - Privet

Ligustrum ibota Musli® ('Muster') is a semi-evergreen, hardy bush of medium size, with a rounded and dense habit and variegated leaves with particularly bright cream colour, which tolerates pruning well and grows fairly quickly: all these qualities make it an excellent mixed hedge bush, either informal or trimmed, but also a good candidate for creating a beautiful backdrop for flower beds or for decorating the terrace when planted in a container. If pruned properly or even not pruned at all, it will offer a pleasant summer flowering with white-cream colour and a pleasant fragrance that would be a shame to miss. The flowers are followed by fairly decorative black berries that are highly appreciated by birds. It is a highly versatile bush that is both decorative and useful in the garden. It can be easily grown in ordinary soil, in full sun or partial shade.

Ligustrum ibota Musli ('Muster') is a Swiss horticultural creation (by Johann Muster) dating back to 2006, introduced in 2010 by SAPHO. It comes from the Ligustrum ibota, native to Japan. All these plants belong to the Oleaceae family, just like lilacs and Forsythias. It is a medium-sized bush with a bushy habit and a naturally rounded silhouette supported by long and flexible branches. This Musli variety, which grows fairly quickly, does not require regular pruning but tolerates it perfectly at the end of winter. This bush measures approximately 2.20m in height and 1.80m in width at maturity. Its foliage is evergreen in mild climates, semi-evergreen elsewhere, and consists of small ovate leaves, marginated with very pale yellow on a green-grey background in spring. In summer, the pale yellow areas turn to white-cream. In June-July, very fragrant and nectar-rich small white-cream flowers appear in panicles measuring 5 to 10 centimetres (2 to 3.9 inches). They are followed in autumn by small spherical black berries, which will persist during part of the winter. The leaves, flowers, and fruits of the bush are toxic to humans and mammals if ingested.

Elegant with its foliage of rare luminosity, and ornamental with its rounded, flexible, and bushy habit, this superb Ligustrum ibota Musli bush can be planted in multiple ways: for the creation of privacy screens and windbreaks, due to the density of its foliage, its medium size, its hardiness, and its naturally dense branching. It is easy to shape it as desired, which makes it perfectly suited for the art of bonsai. It is also well suited for topiary pruning (into a ball or other shapes), or even grown as a standard or half-standard and cultivated in a pot. Finally, it will have a beautiful effect when combined with other pruned bushes, playing with the shape and colour of the foliage, in a graphic and minimalist setting. It also works very well when planted in groups, mass plantings, as a standalone specimen, or as a wild hedge.

It can be planted in combination with other bushes (purple Physocarpus, purple Berberis, Photinia, Eleagnus, Hypericum, Kerria japonica, white Sipées) and perennial plants (Baptisia, shrubby Salvias, tree Lupins) for a beautiful scene of a flowering wild hedge and to enjoy its beautiful foliage and pleasant flowering, by letting it grow freely. It is possible that the roots of the bush may hinder the growth of certain perennial plants planted at its base. As a precaution, respect a sufficient planting distance around it.

Note that this bush has a very high pollution resistance, which makes it valuable in urban gardens.

Properties:

Due to its highly fragrant flowering containing a large amount of pollen, and therefore highly nectar-rich, this bush contributes to the preservation of bees. Its pollen can cause allergies in sensitive individuals.