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pittosporum tobira
Grannygreenfinger
Posts: 2
in Plants
How does Pittosporum to tobira respond to being clipped to form a low formal hedge? When can I start clipping it, the garden is sheltered and the plants have in for two years and seem to be growing well. I'm not worried about loosing the flowers. Any advice would be lovely.
0
Posts
Late May, after danger of frost has passed. It won't have done too much before then anyway
H-C
They take to pruning, and even heavy pruning, quite well. Send out new shoots and round out again quickly. But they are a little odd, in that it has been my experience with severe pruning, the darker green ones will go variegated on the new growth; the variegated will revert to dark green leaves on all new growth.
I had 2 or three well-established pittosporum at an "L" shaped corner of my brick house on the Texas Gulf Coast that wanted to sprawl out over (and kill) my lawn and block a bathroom window, so I had to prune them severely each year to keep them shorter and closer to the house (like a hedge). The leaf transition occurred every single year, so I think this is typical.
In years where I pruned them less, only the pruned branches would change leaf pattern. I let th is guide how much I pruned and to keep them all ONE leaf pattern, I made sure to snip every single branch so the entire bush would change over.
Last edited: 16 March 2017 13:11:01