Pittosporum tenuifolium
Pittosporum tenuifolium
Coastal gardens suit it and it takes clipping into a dense hedge; cold wind is what it wants shelter from.
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Purple and violet
- Sunlight
- Full sun to partial shade; it does well in coastal gardens.
- Watering
- Water until established; drought tolerant from then on.
- Feeding
- A balanced feed in spring, with mulch at the base.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Pruning
- Trim in late spring; hedges want two cuts a year.
- Overwintering
- Hardy in milder gardens; shelter it from cold winds.
- Mar–Sep Spring Growth
- Sep–Dec Growing
- Jan–Mar Growing
- Plant spacing
- 8 ft 2 in
- In-row spacing
- 8 ft 2 in
- Between rows
- 10 ft 3 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody and fibrous
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 12–16 ft across, about 1.5–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A shallow woody framework with the fine feeding roots in the leaf litter above it. Those feeders are mostly under the outer half of the canopy rather than against the stem, which is where water and feed should go.
The habit is Pittosporum tenuifolium’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Scale insects Immobile brown or white bumps fixed to stems and leaf undersides, sucking sap and weakening growth. Wipe off with a damp cloth or dab with horticultural soap; watch for the sooty mold that follows.
- Frost damage Soft new growth and open flowers blackened by late frosts. Fleece on cold nights, avoid planting in frost pockets, and resist cutting damage away until frosts pass.
- Pittosporum sucker
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Scale insects
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Scale insects
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
Lavender, Grasses, Hebes
Shrubs, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com