How to prune overgrown pittosporum Pittosporum is a versatile shrub that rarely needs pruning.

Cut out any suckers at the base of the plant.Fertilise the plant two weeks after pruning, using an all-purpose fertiliser to stimulate growth. Perform this … Hedge trimmers cut through stems and leaves indiscriminately, and so no need exists to cut near a bud.Prune Japanese pittosporum immediately after they finish blooming, if flowers are desired the following season.

Overgrown shrub- can I cut back safely? It is an evergreen plant native to southern Japan and China and has a rapid growth rate until it reaches around 3 metres (10 feet). Cut each sucker back to within a quarter inch of the trunk.

Any time you prune, but particularly when pruning diseased tissue, use a tool sterilized with isopropyl alcohol, a 10 percent bleach solution or household antiseptic cleaner. Late-season pruning can remove the following season's blooms.Cut out all dead or diseased branches of tree-form Japanese pittosporums year-round with tools that were disinfected with isopropyl alcohol. Remove the branches back to the nearest healthy wood or the main trunk.

Overgrown Pittosporum are usually very woody and lack many leaves on the inner branches, so the plant may look quite bare, for a brief period of time, until the new growth begins to emerge with warmer weather.

But however, where I am may be lost.” “I am not lost, for I know where I am. Is it safe to cut it back and reduce the height? Pruning pittosporum.

A: You couldn’t have chosen two plants with more unusual rules of pruning.

Dear Neil: We have overgrown pittosporum and nandina plants. She has been published on various websites, specializing in garden-related instructional articles. Lilacs rejuvenated by this method will not bloom for 3 to 5 years.

Variegated pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira "Variegata") is a fast-growing shrub to small tree grown for its attractive white-edged, oval leaves. But however, where I am may be lost.” Do not fertilise any later than six to eight weeks before the date of the first frost, or new growth might get damaged. Large, overgrown lilacs, honeysuckles, dogwoods, spireas, and forsythias may be pruned in this manner. As a shrub, remove up to one-third of the tallest, oldest stems to the base to control the size of a pittosporum in early spring after all threat of frost if you don't care about the flowers, or wait until blooms fade. Tools suited to the size of the branches are easiest to manage and do the least damage to the shrub. Use loppers to remove one-third of the heaviest wood in the centre. So badly damaged or overgrown bushes can be cut back to one-third of their height at that time, and they will produce new growth in spring.Pittosporum plants (Pittosporum spp,) produce large, glossy, evergreen leaves and fragrant flowers, which bloom in late spring. Create a plan of attack so you make the correct cuts.Use loppers to remove one-third of the heaviest wood in the centre. How to Trim Overgrown Boxwoods. Cut back these lateral branches so that only ½-inch stubs remain.Trim off any suckers, which are weak, whiplike branches, from around the base of each tree-form Japanese pittosporum.

Hunker may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. I would cut it back in mid April - pruning before then risks new growth being damaged by … The plant has multiple stems and may be trained as a small tree by removing the lower limbs to expose the stems. With its vase-shaped canopy, pittosporum also makes an attractive small tree when the limbs from the lower one-third of the trunk are removed just above the branch collars -- the small swelling where they attach to the trunk.Variegated pittosporum occasionally send out long shoots that grow outside the canopy of the rest of the shrub or that may be all green with no variegation. Attached is a picture of the shrub.

Consequently, wait for the end of the blooming in spring to prune the pittosporum.

It needs frequent pruning to keep its size in check, especially when young. Old variegated pittosporums that have become leggy, too tall or misshaped are rejuvenated by cutting them back to a low, woody framework in mid-spring.