When it comes to fresh green foliage that stays that way all year round, no matter how bad the weather, there are few shrubs as good as Pittosporum ‘Mountain Green’. You could be excused for thinking this NZ native is a tender shrub, so lush looking are the small and shiny, rounded leaves, but in fact it’s a tough customer, frost tolerant in all but the very coldest places, and happy in most soils, even the poor and dry, providing there is good drainage.
There are lots of ways to use Pittosporum ‘Mountain Green’ in the garden. It combines well in mixed boundary plantings with other native shrubs, including olive green leafed Griselinia ‘Whenuapai’, tiny bronze-leafed Coprosma virescens, the green ake-ake (Dodonaea viscosa), and Pseudopanax varieties such as ‘Adiantifolius’ and ‘Cyril Watson’. It also looks good with other Pittosporum varieties, including some of the green and white leafed varieties of which there are quite a few, such as the very handsome ‘Ivory Pillar’.
That beautiful green foliage makes ‘Mountain Green’ superb as a background to bright flowers. Just imagine it as a backdrop for colourful perennials such as the new Alstroemerias and all summer flowering Dr Keith Hammett Dahlias. It’s also very appealing when combined with native flaxes, tussock grasses, Hebes, and Coprosmas such as ‘Rainbow Surprise’ which has bright apricot and red tonings in winter.
Because Pittosporum ‘Mountain Green’ responds so well to clipping it makes a superb dense hedge, one which affords complete privacy (no peeping through the branches possible!) as well as making a feature of year long interest. Hedges don’t have to be just on the boundary either - a lowish clipped hedge within the garden can be a very pleasing sight in winter when everything else is at its most subdued.
As with any hedge plant, it’s important to start trimming a hedge of Pittosporum ‘Mountain Green’ soon after planting. This will ensure it grows densely, right to ground level.
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Schemes & Themes
using Liddle Wonder Plants