You can count on Jack – After 36 years of being blissfully unaware of the art of gardening, the questions suddenly start… Buying a house with wilderness helps.

But the coolest thing is that those questions are inspiring enough to make me look up all sorts of things, related to those topics. In MediaLand it’s called “research”.

Privacy, Height-restrictions of trellises and fences, useful hedge species and easy maintenance are important facets of the design – I just added “Natives” and researched the Genus Pittosporum.

Pittosporum means “sticky seeds”

Wow! 200 species – many in New Zealand; lots of different varieties within the best garden species. And often the flowers of this genus produce nice scents during the hours of darkness – obviously pollinated by nocturnal insects.

Everybody grows P. tenuifolium (kohuhu) – it could well be the most popular plant for hedges; small-ish leaves in various colours and hardy from coast to Highlands.

Pittosporum eugenioides (tawapou) or Lemonwood is another frequent planter: can grow pretty tall (10 meters or so) with dense foliage of large leaves – see if that Council of yours can stop that growth!

But then there are some really spectacular species that are quite stunning, native and elegant.

P. obcordatum is a rather rare tree in the wilds of New Zealand, with reddish-bronze twigs and a rather “woolly” look. It is now cultivated (seeds and cuttings) for the NZ garden market. Honestly it is a great wild hedge and grows in just-about any condition. I’ve seen it near Kaitaia, on Banks Peninsula and near Invercargil; This hedge rocks and the less you clip it, the wilder it looks!

Pittosporum turneri looks a bit like obcordatum, but seems to be a bit “leaner” and “thinner” and it has a distinct grey or silver colour; can stand growing in shady areas, which can be useful.

Pittosporum umbellatum is another native from our country. Mostly in the North Island. It has dense foliage with outstanding pinky-white, sometimes cream-coloured inflorescences. (that is a fancy botanical word for “flowers”). The flowers hang in so-called “umbels” – hence the species name umbellatum.

Easy to grow from seed. The trees are pretty hardy in windy conditions.

Finally I can recommend a species called Pittosporum crassicaule; a small and tight species of just half a meter or so that grows very slowly; It has that alpine-plant look with firm twiglets and a feeling of densely interlacing branches, known from divaricating plants.

P. crassicaule has very interesting black flowers that smell beautifully at night.

I reckon it’s not a plant for “privacy” as Jack requested, but it would make a brilliant low hedge around an alpine garden

Have a look at specialist growers of our pretty Pittosporum species – you’ll be surprised.