I wish I had taken a picture, privet hedge?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
  • Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
Status
Not open for further replies.

tiber

Feeling the Heat
Hearth Supporter
Oct 4, 2009
453
Philadelphia
My neighbor ripped out most of his landscaping early last spring and asked if I wanted the wood. I said sure, and he was nice enough to give me the stumps. He had several different bushes. I got the stumps in a wheelbarrel and tossed them into the pile and didn't think much of it.

Fast forward to last night and it was 9pm, about 39F, and I was feeling lazy. I grabbed this twisted, ugly piece of wood off the pile which I believe was one of his shrubs and I put that over some kindling. I grabbed it mostly because it was a completely weird shape and it occupied a lot of the stove but didn't leave room for much other wood. I lit the stove off and had problems keeping it going, so I ended up cracking the ash pan for about 10 minutes to get this to catch up. It was impossibly hard to get it going, but the wood burned with a low flame literally all night. Come the morning there was a nice ash bed in the bottom and I turned off the cat and opened the air all the way to finish off the embers and I was surprised to see the sheer amount of glowing coals left over in the stove from the wood.

So, given the general description of the wood, twisted, gnarled, heavy, slow burning and a shrub, what the heck was it? Privet hedge? Rhododendron?

I wish I had saved some, but it was the only piece. I honestly expected it to go up like paper. My neighbor, not seeing what it was I put in there, doesn't recall. When I order a cord, does anyone know where to get rhododendron?
 
Do you have a description of the hedge? Was it evergreen? Did it have leaves or needles? Did it get berries? There are way too many choices just to guess.

I don't expect you'll find a cord of rhododendron anywhere in PA. Out in the Pacific Northwest I think they have some larger species, but here ven a really big rhodie has just a little wood in it, and it would take forever to proces because it is so twisted. Maybe the reason it burned so long is that it wasn't dry.
 
I was joking about the cord of rhodie.

The options are privet hedge (ligustrum), rhodie, azelia, and whatever the name is of that bush that looks like pepper but flowers.
 
Was it evergreen? I am not sure what you mean about looking like peppers but flowers.
 
It did not smell piney at all. The wood was not resinous nor light colored.
 
did you see the hedge? Did the hedge keep its leaves all winter?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.