Are there any climbing plants which will grow through a privet hedge and will withstand the usual clipping?
Possibly a vigorous clematis or honeysuckle? I can’t cut down my shared privet hedges but I desperately want to make them even the tiniest bit more attractive, especially as they have been cut back very hard this year as they’d been neglected in the past & look like twigs at the moment. A. Some climbers such as those that you mention will withstand the regular cutting that your privet hedge will get if they grow through it, though I wouldn’t do it myself. The plant will almost certainly never flower, or at least not as well as it would do otherwise. Whenever you cut the hedge/climber you’ll be removing resources that could be put into flowering and possibly at some times of the year, the flower buds themselves. Climbers growing through hedges only work in a very informal setting with maybe a single annual cut, situation where privet aren’t really planted. The good news on the other hand is that privet recovers very well and very quickly from a severe cutting into bare wood. Your hedge
