By Volunteer
West Sussex,
United Kingdom 
A neighbour has a well established Privet hedge. It is growing at the top of a dry stone wall that acts as a retaining wall for the garden. She has noticed that the stems are darker than usual and all the leaves have fallen off this winter. I have scraped away a little bark and it is still green underneath. She says that the garden is badly drained under the hedge this year. Do you think it is suffering from waterlogging? Will it survive?
14 Jan, 2013
Answers
It is a tough plant so hopefully it will be ok. I suspect the wet is the cause. You havent noticed any toadstools among the stems have you? they are susceptible to honey fungus.
14 Jan, 2013
yes privets are tough, but do look horrible when they lose their leaves. We got rid of 2 gigantic ball privets when we moved in here for this reason. years ago we had a privet hedge [50 years ago!] and as some young boys were playing roughly and pushing each other about and into the hedge, my Mother rushed out and and told them off[ as you could do back then] and the boys looked at each other and then at her and asked 'what's privets missus?'
3 Feb, 2013
Privets can and often do lose all their leaves in winter. It may be the wet or other weather conditions or sometimes late trimming makes the leaves more likely to fall.
my privet hedge which rarely loses leaves has lost most of them this year. Maybe due to the cold snap we had in December.
There's no guarantee but privet is pretty tough and my best bet would be that it will fully recover in spring.
14 Jan, 2013