I have privet here and there - quite a lot in the work area of my yard behind the garage. It's good for privacy, very dense growth and provides screening and bird habitat even in winter - apparently that's not a concern for you now but might be sometime in the future. My 2 complaints with privet are that the flowers smell awful and that it self-sows so much. If I sheared it, those problems would disappear, but I don't have the patience for that. Unsheared forsythia makes a wide, dense, informal hedge. For part shade, kerria might work better - it gives much the same effect and the stems are bright green. Both grow quickly and can be kept slightly smaller by hand pruning after flowering, cutting the longest stems back to the ground. What about a native, like lindera benzoin, sambucus, or clethra? All are fast growing, and a little rangy, giving a natural, woodsy look to the hedge, and all work well in part shade. I'd pick any one of them over forsythia or privet; the clethra is probably the nicest for an informal hedge.

Haahahahaa! Karen this is SO funny. I'm bursting into laughter reading these posts again, and remembering writing and reading them at the time. Well done! And my favourite part about Martha Stewart dropping in with her dish towel parachute!!! WAY too funny!

The following was stated by Gardengal48: "Sorry but I give very little credence to anything written by a journalist. If this were a scientific paper, I might have more faith in its accuracy and veracity........ " H.Kuska comment: The New York Times article stated: "Also, a recent National Academy of Sciences report found that "there was little evidence" that the introduction of genetically modified crops in the United States had led to yield gains beyond those seen in conventional crops." I have a copy of the National Academy of Sciences Report (which is free for signing up to MyNAP). The following summary in the National Academy of Sciences article is from page 99: " There have been strong claims made about the purported benefits and adverse effects of GE crops. The committee found little evidence to connect GE crops and their associated technologies with adverse agronomic or environmental problems. For example, the use of Bt crops or HR crops did not result in substantially reduced on-farm biodiversity, and sometimes their use resulted in increased biodiversity. In terms of benefits, the evidence was mixed. Bt crops have increased yields when insect pest pressure was high, but there was little evidence that the introduction of GE crops were resulting in a more rapid yearly increases in on-farm crop yields in the United States than had been seen prior to the use of GE crops. Use of Bt crops is clearly associated with a decrease in the number of insecticide applications, but with HR crops the evidence is equivocal. Importantly, most studies only report the number of kilograms of pesticide used, but this metric does not necessarily predict environmental or health effects. The quantitative contribution of GE crop traits themselves to yield in experimental plots was sometimes difficult to determine because the GE and non-GE varieties could differ in other yield associated traits. In surveys on yield and insecticide and herbicide use in farmer fields, the different adoption rates of GE crops by farmers who had different land quality and financial resources confounded some results. There is a need for improved survey and experimental approaches that disentangle the effects of the GE trait itself from other factors that affect yield."

This is one at my niece's house nearby. It's a venerable old thing, maybe 25' across. And is almost always in bloom at Christmas. It has been in bloom for at least 6 weeks and is just now starting to go over. When first opened, the blooms are very red but fade to that more orange tone as they age. The plant was already well established when my niece bought the place so no idea what the cultivar is. It is not Diane, as I have grown that one myself and it doesn't get nearly as large. And this is much redder than Diane when first in bloom and with no retained dead foliage. If I had to guess, I'd say 'Feuerzauber'.