Pittosporum Irene Patterson
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.
If you happen to leave a comment I will be sure to visit your site and do the same
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so sorry to hear they did not all make it..such lovely plants…but we do so like to push the hardiness and see just maybe if a plant might make it…a wonderful post Alistair…
Yes Donna, I will probably continue to plant those which are borderline.
Hi Alistair, that 3rd photo is so incredible in color! Does it grow fast. It will be so amazing with arrangements. I think we also have Pittosporum here, though i am not so familiar with them.
The leaf colour of Tomb Thumb is not always so vivid, gets more intense as shown when leaves mature.
Hi Alistair, I do like that Pittosporum, one to keep an eye for! A lovely exotic shrub from NZ 🙂
We’ve had mixed results with Pittosporums in our garden. They don’t seem to tolerate too much root freeze, all the ones we had pot grown perish in the winter but the ones planted out are fine.
Yes Mark, they have been fine in our garden for a number of years also, this past Winter was just too severe for them.
The way you described the foliage of the 1st photo was so clear, urging me to see the real thing. But when you showed the 2nd and 3rd photos of its different cultivars, I was fascinated with the plant with the lovely foliage! Thanks for sharing about these unknown plant (to me)!
Thanks p3, I think Pittosporum will find its way back to my garden at some time in the future.
I love pittosporum. Sorry yours were lost. Mine have had some freeze back, and don’t look so pretty, but they are still very much alive. The good thing about losing a plant is getting to try something else!
What you say about losing a plant is so very true Holley.
Alastair – Thanks for introducing me to Pittosporums. I’ve been looking for a plant that can match the all-year-round beauty of Pieris and I think Tom Thumb fits the bill
I think that Tomb Thumb would compliment your Pieris very well b-a-g.— just found Christianity a– (b-born a- again – g guy)
Alistair, My name stands for Born-Again-Gardener, due to my renewed interest. It was going to be the name of my blog, but I wasn’t the first person to have this idea, so I just kept the initials.
I haven’t discovered religion yet …
Hi b-a-g, two thirds correct and missed out on the obvious. All in fun, hope you don’t mind.
I have never heard of this plant so probably not hardy here. Sorry you lost yours, but you are providing a valuable service so other gardeners in your area will think twice before planting it. Jill from landscapelover visited me today and told me that you have no system like our hardiness zones. It is very handy because I can just look up a plant’s zone and know whether I should try it, and if it is borderline that I should site it carefully.
Pittisporum would never survive your very cold Winters Carolyn. The plant is borderline in Scotlands coastline this past Winter we had temperatures of minus 10c on quite a few occasions and one night it reached minus 14 enough to finish them off. We dont truly have the zones in the manner which you have although some people here think that we have. Some attempt to address this many years ago was made, for instance they placed London as Zone 9, no way does it relate to the zone 9 of the US.
Hello Alistair, sorry to hear of the demise of your pittosporums. I agree with you in loving the Tom Thumb which is such a deep sumptuous colour. Surprisingly our pittosporums have survived well this winter down here in the south although it is often the dry cold winds of march that do so much damage…
Hello Mike, it is a pity, I suspect that I will give Tomb Thumb another go.
As I read your post I kept thinking that one of those would never cope with my garden temperatures. Sorry to hear that yours didn’t make it over the winter as they are beautiful foliage plants and especially useful for floral art arrangements.
Hi Rosie, don’t you find that we are so often tempted to try those plants which can be borderline. However if your Winter temperature has prolonged spells of minus 12c its not likely to survive.
I used to push the boundaries all of the time though with the expensive losses over the past 2 years I am hesitant now with my purchases of that “eye candy” after having 2 winters with -17 and -18 being recorded in the garden. Some of my diascia Blackthorn Apricot didn’t make it through this year and it has been growing in my garden for years. Last year even some of the pyracantha’s didn’t make it.
True enough Rosie, everything does have its limit. Great to feel that the season is now under way.
I’m surprised to see that Pittosporum will survive in Aberdeen. Have you tried P tobira? Kirengeshoma palmata was an excellent suggestion for my post on Japanese plants. I’ve always thought that was an exceedingly lovely perennial. But I didn’t run across it as I was doing my research. I added it to the post. Thanks.
Yes Jordan Pittosporum has been in our garden for a good few years now. Our Winter temp on the coast generally doesn’t go below minus 6c this past winter was exceptionally cold and I lost them all along with a few other evergreens which have survived for years. Thanks I will keep a look out for Tobira. Yes Kirengeshoma is one of my favourite perennials.
Thanks Jordan, I live between Derby and Nottingham and I have lost 4 Pittosporum – 3 variagated and 1 Tom Thumb, but just down the road from me I have just noticed that a non-variagated one that has survived, think it might be Pittosporum Tobira.
The temperatures here got down to -12 in December, and whilst the top 12″ of our soil is quite good but heavy, we are on a clay base. So think I might also try a Tobira
I was just starting to struggle with jealousy that your Tom Thumb had survived when mine hasn’t when I got to the end. So I can be truly sympathetic. I dug out the remnants of ours three days ago, and have planted various perennials in its place. Just not the same, but I refuse to try again and risk losing again. Maybe one day I will live somewhere that they thrive even in the harsher winters. Like Cornwall, perhaps… There again…
It is annoying Janet, I have just planted a few Lilies in the position where tomb thumb was. We also used to think of moving to Cornwall, then two or three nice days here and we were happy. I guess there is nowhere like home.
I have nine different pittosporums (some variegated) planted in various places in my garden for more than 5 years. They are large and well established but without exception are now looking very sad after what has been a fairly easy winter. I find it hard to work out the reason. I am unsure whether to to leave them to see if they recover or just to dig them up.
In Aberdeen these shrubs would often look sorry for themselves but would recover. I think its too early to be removing them, give them a chance before bing too rash.