Pittosporum tenuifolium 'John Flannigan'
The new growth on this Pittosporum 'John Flannigan' really stands out with their variegated lime green edges and bright green almost yellow centre. The leaves do become a darker mid green showing only slight variegation as they mature and act as a great backdrop to highlight the new brighter growth.
As with many evergreen plants we now grow in the UK Pittosporum tenuifolium (buy one here) is a native from New Zealand and known as the New Zealand pittosporum. This plant was labelled 'John Flannigan' but I believe this is a synonym as Provender Nurseries names it as Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Margaret Turnbull'. I've also seen it listed as 'John Flanagan' and 'John Flanigan' so I am guessing it has been mislabeled.
It is evergreen and hardy to H4 so similar to to many evergreen plants we grow in the UK so should be fine in our milder winters. It does prefer semi-shade to full sun but I have it growing in a well drained slightly more shady spot.
As a note I did trim it back and it seemed to respond well to this with bright new growth. It can grow to small tree size so combined with its attractive small dense foliage that remains green all year round would be a good candidate for use as part of a hedge.
