Variegated Pittosporum
Pittosporum tobira ‘Variegata’ · a variegated pittosporum
A tidy evergreen with grey-green, cream-edged leaves that brighten shady corners and orange-blossom-scented flowers in spring, good by a foundation or as a low hedge. It's tough against heat, drought, salt spray and alkaline soil. It's hardy only in mild-winter regions, wet soil rots it, and deer often browse it.
- Mature size
- 5 × 5 ft
- 1.5 × 1.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 8a–10b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Dry to medium
- Blooms
- Apr–May
Variegated Pittosporum at its mature size
A mature Variegated Pittosporum grows to about 5 ft tall and 5 ft wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: San Marcos Growers.
Through the year
What Variegated Pittosporum looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Jun–Mar
Glossy gray-green leaves with creamy white margins.
In flower · Apr–May
Small creamy white flower clusters at the branch tips.
Growing Variegated Pittosporum
- Grows well in
- The Southeast, the Plains and Mountain West, and California.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Hedge, small space, foundation planting, specimen, drought tolerant, and fragrant
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Selection of a species native to Japan, China and Korea
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Variegated Pittosporum, that’s about 5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Variegated Pittosporum in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other pittosporums
Variegated Pittosporum
Kohuhu PittosporumAll drawn to the same scale.