if you checked many of the garden watchdog places.. you would understand how far behind the 8 ball you are .... arbor day is a great place to make a donation... but not the greatest place to buy stock from ....

in z5... proper planting time was from ground thaw until about 4/15 ....

your stock.. should have come.. dormant.. and been planted.. and given about 45 to 90 days until the heat of summer set in ...

your will have about 2 weeks now that it is basically june ...

since the odds are already stacked against you.. i recommend potting them.. and keeping them in shade for the whole summer..

and then planting them at the next PROPER planting time.. which is basically October in z5 ... when all the other trees turn colors ...

good luck.. you will need it... ken

Actually, when I ordered them, it said they would be shipped in the fall. The problem is, it will be late fall, (Nov) and I'm afraid it will be too cold at that time for them to make it through the winter. If the weather is already bad when they arrive I will put them in my shed for the winter and plant them in the spring.

What I really wanted was a fence but that would have been too expensive, so I setteled for the hedge. While I'm sure that there were better place to shop, the prices that I saw were approx 10 times what I paid when you include shipping. In that case, I may as well have just gone for the fence. If it works out, I will have only spent $65.

Anyway, back to my questions... any idea how much shade they can take? And, how far apart can they be planted?

As to how far apart they should be planted, using the species name for the specific privet you are getting (I see the Arbor day site says Ligustrum x ibolium), you should be able to find the mature size of the plant on the internet. Using that to determine how far apart; as an example, if the mature size is 6 feet wide, then plant them six feet apart (or closer if you want a tighter hedge sooner but they will crowded themselves eventually).

Looks like Arbor Day says the plants will be 1 to 2 feet tall upon delivery and mature spread according to them is 4-6 feet. Another site says 6-8 feet wide and "this hybrid is a cross between L. ovalifolium and L. obtusifolium" (for those that are interested in the parentage).

Ligustrum obtusifolium has some reported invasive tendencies in some northern states as noted here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mobot site with height and width numbers

Thank you for your help. Still looking into that shade question. Guess I have time to do my research!

Sorry, I missed that - they do prefer sun, so planting them in shade would slow their growth.