Green Pittosporum

Pittosporum tobira

Plant Details

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 8a-11 Find Your Zone

Plant Type: Evergreen Flowering Shrub

Height at Maturity: 4-8′ depending on pruning

Width at Maturity: 4-8′ depending on pruning

Spacing: 4-5′ for solid hedges; 12’+ for space between plants

Growth Habit / Form: Dense, Rounded Mound

Growth Rate: Moderate

Flower Color: White fading to yellow

Flower Size: Small

Flowering Period: Mid- to late-Spring

Flower Type: Single

Fragrant Flowers: Yes, scent of orange blossoms!

Foliage Color: Green

Fragrant Foliage: No

Berries: Pear-shaped fruits

Berry Color: Green

Sun Needs: Full to Mostly Sun. All Day Filtered Sun, Morning Sun With Afternoon Shade. Morning Shade with Afternoon Sun

Water Needs: Very Low when established

Soil Type: Clay (Amended), Loam, Sandy, Silty

Soil Moisture / Drainage: Well Drained Moist to Dry when established

Soil pH: 5.5 – 7.0 (Acid to Neutral)

Maintenance / Care: Very Low if left to grow naturally

Attracts: Visual Attention

Resistances: Deer – more info, Disease, Drought, Dry Soil, Heat, Humidity, Insect

Description

Green Pittosporum is a handsome, heat-loving, evergreen shrub that also goes by the common name of Japanese Mock Orange. Why Mock Orange? Because the white flowers produced at the tips of branches in spring have the delightful fragrance of orange blossoms.

Landscape & Garden Uses

Growing 4 to 8 feet tall and wide (depending on pruning), Green Pittosporum is ideal for use as a dense, evergreen hedge. It can be maintained by clipping or shearing into a formal hedge at a minimum height of 4 to 5 feet. When our plant reached about 6 feet in height we removed some lower branches to form a very attractive tree-form specimen. In areas above USDA Planting Zone 8a, where not winter hardy, you can grow this one in containers that are overwintered indoors in a sun room or a greenhouse. It can also be grown year round as a houseplant provided it’s given plenty of light. Excellent salt spray tolerance lends well to seaside plantings. A fine addition to fragrance gardens, rock gardens, tropical look gardens and the Xeriscape (low water needs).

Note: For our customers who live and garden North of USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 8a, where this Pittosporum variety is not reliably winter hardy, you’ll be happy to know it can be grown in containers that can be brought indoors during winter and placed back outside when temperatures warm up in spring.

Growing Preferences

Green Pittosporum is very easy to grow in most any well-drained loose soils of average fertility. Avoid sites with constantly soggy soil. Amend heavy clay soils to improve drainage. It grows equally as well in full sun as it does part shade. The one we have growing in our gardens since 2008 receives a just a few hours of morning sun and shade the rest of the day. It has demonstrated exceptional heat and drought tolerance and will rarely if ever need supplemental irrigation, even in prolonged drought. It is very low maintenance with no pruning necessary, however responds well to selective pruning and even shearing into formal shapes or hedges.

Note: For helpful advice from our experts, click on the Planting & Care tab above on desktop computer monitors or below on mobile devices.

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