Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Stevens Island’

A lovely evergreen with an upright, moundy form with small round blue-green leaves. The foliage is deceptively delicate, and there’s masses of it with each leaf a dainty bright green pointy coin held closely to dark brown stems. Can be used to create pretty hedges or visual breaks, or planted as an eyecatching specimen. ‘Tidy’ isn’t glamorous-sounding but this Pitto really is neat and that’s absolutely an asset when designing a garden with architecture in mind (did you see the sign over the door?) and you want something with year-round form and interest that can take care of itself. Therefore this shrub-to-small-tree is the epitome of rolling, rounded neatness. There’s no need to clip it into cloud shapes or whatever, for it will do it all for you and undulate away quite vigorously by itself as your shears remain in the shed. Winner. By the way, Stevens island is a smallish, beautiful bump in the Cook Strait which separates the North and South islands of New Zealand. Plants from NZ are tremendous for British gardens since our respective maritime climates and conditions aren’t too disparate. Definitely find a spot away from icy winds, but this plant is great for coastal gardens and is otherwise very tolerant of most soils and aspects.