Tom Thumb Kohuhu / Tawhiwhi Hedging

Tom Thumb Kohuhu / Tawhiwhi Hedging

Pittosporum ‘Tom Thumb’s evergreen leaves are purple, which contrast the green new shoots. Great low maintenance ornamental hedging, with a naturally globular habit: often grown as balls. The small brownish-purple flowers in May-June are few, but have a light honey scent that gets stronger in the evening. To 1 metres.

Browse our other evergreen hedging here, or all our hedge plants here.

Features

• Purple, with bright green new foliage
• Evergreen shrub
• Doesn't flower much: bad for bees!
• Light honey fragrance in the evening
• Low maintenance hedging or specimen balls
• To 1m
• RHS Award of Garden Merit

Growing Pittosporum Tom Thumb

Likes a moist, fertile soil with a decent amount of sun. It's hardy throughout most of the UK, but in colder parts of Scotland it'll struggle in exposed locations.

Clip it once a year in Spring to keep it nice and bushy. When it reaches its full size, you may clip it every other year to encourage flowers.

History & Trivia

Pitto-sporum means tar-seed, and tenui-folium is thin-leaf. At home in New Zealand, various locals call it Kohuhu and Tawhiwhi.