That's too bad about your Pittosporums. Are they tobira? If so, it's really crazy that they were damaged so badly by the freeze. I have seen quite a few healthy plants all around Western Washington. If it were me, I would wait until late May, early June and see of there is any life coming from what would be live wood. By then if nothing is happening, dig up the dead ones and go grab a couple new ones, and hope they get better established before the next bad freeze.

I'm in the same boat. My 2-Y-O Pitto tenufolium was OK until I pruned it aggressively in early March, anticipating spring. Since then we've had more snow and multiple freezes, and now the few remaining leaves are a sickly olive-brown. No green under the bark, either. It's definitely in the Charlie Brown class of pathetic shrubs. I'm waiting until May or June to yank it becuase if it's alive, it should grow back pretty fast. And then I can take credit for my horticultural superpowers.

P. tenuifolium is not nearly as hardy as tobira and even tobira will suffer foliage damage, possibly more, in a winter like most of us have had! I'd wait a bit on the tobira but I'd write off the tenuifoliums. Even in my rather benign microclimate, these did not make it. They are most often considered a zone 9 plant.

Gardengal, do you think an Azara microphylla would be hardier? I saw on line that you had a non-variegated variety in your yard in Sept. 2006. Is it still alive? I need an evergreen or densely brushy deciduous shrub to obscure my neighbor's view into my bedroom. Something that will grow at least 8 ft tall in a year or two (taller is OK) but won't exceed 6-8 ft in diameter. It's a dappled shade location in a corner with fencing on two sides--pretty protected, with cool, moderately moist soils. Marty Wingate's Plant Pick last January was Drimys lanceolata, but my small containerized Drimys looks awful, even after I carted it into the garage during every freaking cold spell.

My azara is totally alive and looking great! As a matter of fact, it's in full, chocolatey-scented bloom. And getting quite tall after 6 or 7 years. My Drimys is planted not too far away and looks pretty good as well. It had a little bit of winter damage but nothing to get excited about. Mine's still small but has been in the ground for several winters now....maybe as many as 5 although I can't remember precisely when I got it. I am sure it would be hardier planted and established in the ground than being grown as a container plant.

I've got apittosporum tennuifolium 'silver ruffles,and it's looking pretty good,it's got some leaf burn,but not to bad.The crinodendron hookerianum planted about 12' from it took the winter alot harder.I guess I got lucky.

In my observation Pittosporums are likely to come back if they're frozen to the ground once they're rather large and well established. When they're small, I don't know; perhaps not. P. tenuifolium the species itself has been perfectly hardy for me... certainly hardier than P. eugenioides or P. crassifolium. It's all those fancy cultivars that I think are a little less hardy. P. colensoi and P. ralphii are even hardier, and P. ilicioides may be the hardiest I know of yet, although I don't know how these stack up against P. tobira.

Ian, I have (had?) the plain green-leaved P. tenuifolium with black twigs. Is that the species or a cultivar?

I was on dan hinkley's web site and he's posted a list of plants that died,got damaged,and made it through in decent shape,it's kind intresting.

I cheated and stuck my P. tobira 'Wheeler's Dwarf' in the greenhouse....It is a plant that reminds me of growing up in Arizona. They are very common there. I'm not familiar with the others. They either aren't or weren't when I lived, gardened and worked at a nursery there.

>>Ian, I have (had?) the plain green-leaved P. tenuifolium with black twigs. Is that the species or a cultivar?

The species is like that and at least a couple cultivars are too ('Theodore' comes to mind). And so is P. colensoi.

I can't imagine the New Zealand Pittosporums would like the climate of Arizona a whole lot. Those are the kind of plants I would miss if I ever moved down there.

The genus as a whole is best considered tender by those not in Zonal Denial. The Tobira is not hardy at all, specimens of any size are only possible in neighborhoods that do not get cold. At this time I cannot readily name a single full-sized example in this area. The presence of these shrubs in a particular location shows that the planting site/neighborhood is mild, not that the shrub is hardy here.

Or that there has been a series of mild winters.

Since a friend was able to get the comparatively visually unimpressive yet supposedly hardy P. heterophyllum to grow several feet tall on a hill out east of Kent, I planted one in the Camano Island garden and one against a sunny wall north of Seattle - on a site at most 1/4 mile from Puget Sound. The tips of this one burnt and bent over this winter; the entire top of the Camano plant failed and it has already been pulled out.

I suppose if you held a very conservative view of 'hardiness' you would take that approach. I recall a number of full sized tobiras in plantings at the Seattle Center, although I haven't visited them recently.

My own pittosporums had mixed results this winter, but I'd not consider this winter typical - it remained quite warm until just before the late December freeze, which is not a common set of circumstances. Usually we have a gradual progression into colder temperatures, allowing for some hardening off. My tenuifolium 'Marjorie Channon' did not survive (only planted last season) but 'Golfball', in a container, did and with minimal damage. P. 'Garnettii', which is a tall shrub of about 6' and established going on 10 years survived fine with only some minor leaf loss.

I guess it depends on your point of view but avoiding marginally hardy plants simply because they may not be permanent additions to the landscape seems to be unnecessarily limiting. Especially to those gardeners that seek something a bit more stimulating than the ubiquitous rhodies, pieris and boxwoods.

The only mature P. tobira I know of is in the Chinese Garden in downtown Portland and as it is a walled garden with a lot of pavement to reflect heat the location is warmer than the average yard.

Why does this discussion sound familiar all of a sudden? And what's the point of making sweeping generalizations about the hardiness of an entire genus of plants? Many plant genera contain species and cultivars that are hardy here, and not (Rhododendron comes to mind).

I'm not sure what is meant by 'mature' but P. tobira has reached about 12' tall in my garden and flowered and fruited. P. 'Garnetii' is also that tall, and P. ralphii is perhaps 15' tall, but these haven't flowered yet. P. crassifolium grew to about 8' and then froze out a couple years ago, and P. eugenioides froze in its first winter for me - but I have both in other parts of the garden still doing well on tougher spots where they experience better hardening off.

I think many tobira's planted here must be of a dwarf or smaller growing variety/varieties. I have one that was not planted too many years ago (five?) and it's taller than I am, and not in a leggy young looking way. Very full and mature looking. There is also a very large one near my house that had some big branches break off due to snow, but still large, if not quite so full.

There was a smaller growing one in the Arborium that lived through the 1990 winter, but never really looked very attractive after that. It was pretty much growing in mud on a shady hillside, and I can't recall it ever blooming, so not a good spot for such a plant in the first place.

I know they can be damaged by extremely harsh winters here, but that scent the flowers give is really worth giving it a try. So far mine looks just as good as my Rhody's and Camellia's, and is putting out new growth.

Portland is colder than many areas around Seattle. P. tobira is not a common landscape shrub here.

S. Hogan mentions a Tobira introduced by A. Kruckeberg that survived near 0F in Seattle. Says it has been called something like 'University of Washington Hardy'. Don't remember if his discussion makes it clear what condition it was in after such cold; others can read his account and see what seems to be stated or implied.

He also reports cold temperature performance of several other pittosporums (as well as the other broad-leaved evergreens treated in the book). Not surprisingly, the lowest temperature survival records given are often from hot climates, where growth may be ripened much better than here - or bitter cold may not last long enough to freeze up the soil and roots.

Here is a link that might be useful: Timber Press: Trees for All Seasons

That hardier clone might be what I have, since I got it from Mike Lee and he told me it was some special hardy form, and since the UW seems to be the source for quite a few of his special plant selections. There are at least two forms of P. tobira originating from Korea in US culviation (listed on the North Carolina Cooperative Extension web site) - these ought to exhibit good hardiness as well.

It wouldn't be surprising if summer heat was important to increase the hardiness of Asian Pittosporums such as P. tobira. I doubt it makes much of a difference for the New Zealand species which come from a climate that isn't any warmer in summer than ours. I was at the Woodland Park Zoo on Friday and I saw that P. tobira was heavily damaged while P. tenuifolium had only very light damage and still looked quite good overall.

Those actually don't like it hot. But anything from the southern hemisphere will not be exposed to Arctic fronts, when it is both cold and dry.

I'm in Sunset's Zone 5--southeast Seattle. I have a Pittosporum tennuifolium (light lime-green leaves/black stemming) that's been in the ground for 4 years, southern exposure, and is protected from the north. This year the top third of the plant took a beating, actually a burning, from that bitter wind that came from the southeast creating temps 20 degrees and below. I was tempted to shear it down below the burned part, but after reading other posts I'll definitely wait until I see signs of new growth coming on before I take any drastic measures. I would hate to lose that plant as it has been a lovely addition to my garden!

I just today noticed that I have a P. tenuifolium that sat outside in a 1 gallon pot through the entire ordeal (December freeze). It still looks pretty good with only slight damage to the older leaves. It was really well hardened off since it was a neglected plant that was in the same pot with no new fertilizer for at least two or three years.

Always look at the roots when assessing the overwintered condition of potted stock. The first thing that goes is the younger roots out near the pot walls, followed by the older, hardier woody roots near the center. The top is the most hardy part. But as the roots go, so goes the top: if part or all of the roots have been lost, the top will be affected later. I've seen frozen camellias remain fresh-looking until flowering time, then turn brown and drop their parts.

I'm sure frozen roots are the demise of much of my potted stock that looked ok initially.... including my Leucosideas. But it's been 3 1/2 months now which I think is enough time to tell which plants are going to die off from having lost their root system. Also we're deviating from the main point of this thread which was top hardiness.

I'd say it's a bit early to tell for lots of kinds of plants. The initiation of new top growth forces the issue, that's probably why camellias may look good then fall apart when top starts to become active. Partial loss of roots also results in reduced top growth following growing season, something that might not be able to be assessed until season is mostly over.

Likewise, viability or lack of it in plants growing in ground with currently dead-looking tops may take months yet to be demonstrated. After the 1990 winter when tops of a few of the giant musk roses at Seattle arboretum died re-growth from the roots from one in particular near the visitor center was very feeble. It took years to recover its vigor but eventually all were back up to approaching original size.

Probably had to do with loss of stored energy in stems.

In my observation it seems that freeze damage that takes 3-4 months or more to show up is usually the result of injury to the cambium of the main trunk and/or large branches of woody plants, rather than injury to the roots. In many cases (but depending on siting and other factors) these are most vulnerable just above ground level where the effect of radiational cooling is at its greatest. I too have seen woody plants sit for months with no apparent damage after a freeze... then when the weather warms up, the plant figures out its cambium isn't in good enough shape to transport water to the top of the plant and it collapses. Unsurprisingly, plants that seem to have this problem here include a lot of Southern Hemisphere favorites such as eucalyptus, Acacia and Banksia.

Well after such a prolonged winter, I am happy to say I have Acacia dealbata (germinated in the garden), Banksia marginata, and Eucalyptus doing wonderfully, as I think Ian might have noticed. Hell, after the genius IQ plant lady on TV, saying everyones palm trees "are dead" during the freeze, I am happy my Rhody's came through!!! ;)

Hey, klew! Just came across this post and am dealing with this same exact problem. What ever happened with your pittosporums? Did they come back?

The winter of 2008-9 was particularly ferocious for much of the Puget Sound area. I lost a well established P. garnettii and a tenuifolium 'Silver Sheen', among some other, supposedly more hardy plants. Not a great season for marginally hardy BLE's :-)

Since then I have moved to Kitsap county, almost on top of the Sound, and it's a bit surprising how much milder it is in winter - almost a mini banana belt!! I currently grow a couple of varieties of P tenuifolium in containers - County Park Dwarf (going on 10 years) and Marjorie Channon (6 years) - and neither one has shown the slightest signs of even winter foliage damage, let alone any die back.

Having grown a number of different pitts over the years (and actually wrote about growing them here in the PNW for Fine Gardening) it's been my experience that if they die back to the ground in winter, that's it - they do not come back - but they will recover from any winter damage to the foliage and minor partial die back.

And although I haven't been there in a number of years so have no idea if they are still present and alive, there used to be a number of plantings of P. tobira of decent size and maturity at the Seattle Center. But that may be attributable to the urban heat island phenomenon.

I'm worried that is the case. It's a hot mess. It's in a pot on the patio so there's no harm in leaving it for a while to see if a miracle happens, but I won't hold my breath! :-)

My P. tenuifolium never revived after the Spring freeze of 2009, and I noticed a larger, much older specimen (in my Ballard neighborhood of Seattle) was removed DOA from its sheltered courtyard around the same time I dug out mine. I replaced the Pitto with Azara microphylla--now about 20 ft tall--and I just bought an intriguing new Eucryphia lucida 'Spring Cream' for another similar spot. It has beautiful, small, variegated leaves similar to the Pitto, but with pink tones in addition to the green and cream, and is also evergreen and tolerates shade. I believe Eucryphia are a bit hardier.

I believe Eucryphia are a bit hardier.

Not E. lucida, however. Or at any rate it is also prone to damage this far North. The most cold resistant one is E. glutinosa - which is of course deciduous.

Notice I wrote "believe," as in "substantiated by desire, not by fact." However, I have two flourishing evergreen E. x nymanensis ‘Nymansay’ that sailed through the nasty winter of 2008-9 with only minor leaf-drop, so crossing my fingers seems to have worked well.

Last real test was 1990.

The state champion eucryphia, located in Bremerton, has certainly been around longer than 1990!! It's huge........maybe 40'?