The main content of my posts is to hopefully give information on plants and shrubs which are fully hardy in the North East of Scotland. I have been gardening for many years in Aberdeen. Often I have been made aware of other amateur gardeners in the area concerned that plants which thrive south of the border may in fact struggle in Aberdeen. In my experience most of them will in fact grow, however they may be at least a full fortnight later in coming in to flower. Of course there are some which grow in the far south of England which simply will not survive here. What you can depend on is, I will give information on how each plant which I list has performed in our garden.

Pittosporum Irene Patterson

We are always on the look out for hardy evergreen plants that are perhaps that little bit different. The Pittosporum Irene Patterson which caught our eye in Ben Reids garden centre a few years ago has been a very welcome introduction to our border.(Some of you may find it just too garish, this is a subject that I would like to go in to with some detail on another occasion.)

My experience with Pittosporum over the past six years or so is that they are hardy in Aberdeen, perhaps by the end of the more severe Winters looking a little sorry for themselves. I do have reason to believe that they may struggle to get through the Winter in inland country areas where the temperature can plummet much lower than here on the coast.

The shiny mid green leaves of Irene Patterson are marbled white and cream and held on black stems.

This shrub truly shimmers when the sunlight catches it. The new leaves are creamy white and in Winter tinged pink.

Irene Patterson was a seedling found in a garden in the south island of New Zealand and native to this country.

Your Pittosporum can be pruned at any time during the Summer with shears and will give it that more dense appearance. Even if you are one of the many gardeners who are not fond of plants with variegated leaves, I promise you will love this one, or on second thought, well as I say we will talk about this again.

Height – 90cm/3ft

Hardiness – Fully hardy in coastal areas (now less optomistic)

Position – Shade/Full sun

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Here we have another couple of Pittosporums which have been in our garden for a few years. (Garnetii) the most popular of all the cultivars. Leaves are pale green with creamy white edges. Once again generally hardy in coastal areas. After the two severe Winters in one year Jan/Feb then Nov/Dec of 2010, I am not quite so optimistic.

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Pittosporum Tom Thumb is probably the hardiest of them all. The young leaves of this New Zealand species are a pale mottled green turning a deep red/bronze when matured. Growing to an absolute maximum of three feet, all in all a very worthy garden plant which was given an award of garden merit for plants of outstanding excellence.

A number of weeks have passed since I prepared the draft for this posting, and it now looks that after six or seven years in the garden the only pittosporum which is going to pull through is Tomb Thumb. Very disappointing.  Further update—non of them have survived this very harsh Winter, I will now place Pittosporum in my not fully hardy folder. Having said this, they have come through in Robert and Dawns garden in town where the frost is not quite so severe.

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