Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Bannow Bay' (Bannow Bay Tawhiwhi)
Hardy Compact Evergreen Shrub with Spectacular Seasonal Colour Changes
Create captivating garden displays with Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Bannow Bay', a remarkable compact evergreen shrub that transforms through the seasons with stunning colour variations. This dwarf New Zealand native begins spring with fresh light green foliage edged in cream, develops enchanting pink and burgundy tones through summer, and culminates in rich deep burgundy winter colouring after the first frosts. Small dark purple flowers provide subtle honey fragrance in late spring, making it perfect for adding year-round structural interest and seasonal drama to any garden setting.
Key Features
- Plant Type: Hardy compact evergreen shrub
- Height: 1m
- Spread: 60cm
- Flowering Period: May to June
- Flower Size: Small clusters of tiny bell-shaped flowers
- Flower Colour: Dark purple with honey fragrance
- Foliage: Seasonal colour changes from light green with cream edges to deep burgundy
- Hardiness: Hardy in the UK down to temperatures of -10 to -5 degrees Celcius (RHS hardiness rating H4)
- Growth Habit: Slow-growing, compact, densely bushy
Spectacular Seasonal Colour Transformation
The outstanding feature of 'Bannow Bay' lies in its remarkable seasonal colour transformation that provides year-round garden interest. This colour-changing shrub begins the season with light green foliage with a cream edge, takes on pink tones during late summer, and then transforms into glossy burgundy after the first frosts. In spring and early summer, the young foliage is olive green with cream-white edges. In summer the colour changes to pink, cream-white and green, and in winter the leaves are pink with purple. This extraordinary colour journey ensures the plant provides enhanced visual interest throughout every season.
Compact Growth Habit
New compact new variety of Pittosporum that reaches a maximum height of 1m. Forming a dense mound foliage to 100 x 80 cm's over 10 years. This slow-growing nature makes it perfect for smaller gardens, containers, and situations where controlled growth is desired. Densely bushy and dwarf, this slow-growing evergreen forms a tight mound that requires little trimming, making it ideal for low-maintenance garden schemes.
Fragrant Flowering Display
Like other Pittosporums, 'Bannow Bay' produces clusters of fragrant, tiny, dark purple flowers in late spring and early summer. Small, dark purple flowers may appear in late spring, adding further appeal. While the flowers are inconspicuous, their sweet honey scent fills the air with delightful fragrance, creating a sensory experience that enhances the garden's appeal beyond the stunning foliage display.
Exceptional Garden Versatility
Fabulous for creating attractive hedging and privacy screens, plant your hardy shrub in coastal, cottage and low maintenance gardening schemes. The compact size and dense growth habit make it perfect for low hedging, border edging, and container planting. Ideal for container cultivation and topiary shapes. Its neat, controlled growth makes it suitable for formal garden designs whilst providing structural interest in mixed borders.
Growing Requirements
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Soil and Position: Grow in fertile, moist but well-drained soil in sun or light shade, with shelter from cold drying winds. Adapts to various soil types including clay if drainage is adequate, and tolerates urban pollution well.
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Light Requirements: Grow this in a warm garden, and whilst it is happy in partial shade, the best colour develops on plants in full sun. The spectacular colour changes are most pronounced when grown in bright conditions.
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Soil Preferences: Prefers fertile, moist but well-drained soil. Site out of cold drying winds in moist but well drained soil. Avoid permanently waterlogged sites for optimal performance.
Care and Maintenance
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Pruning Requirements: This slow-growing evergreen forms a tight mound that requires little trimming, making it exceptionally low-maintenance. Light pruning after flowering helps maintain shape and encourages dense growth. Can be trimmed regularly for formal hedging or shaped for topiary work.
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Watering Requirements: Drought-tolerant once established, it requires minimal maintenance beyond occasional pruning to maintain shape. Water regularly during establishment and dry periods. Once established, shows reasonable drought tolerance but performs best with consistent moisture.
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Fertilising Programme: Feed in spring and summer with a high nitrogen fertiliser or a slow release balanced fertiliser for the plant to thrive. Apply balanced fertiliser in spring to support healthy growth and enhance the seasonal colour changes.
Design Applications
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Specimen Plantings: Outstanding as a standalone specimen where the dramatic seasonal colour changes can be fully appreciated. Perfect for creating bright focal points in garden designs, particularly effective in smaller gardens where its compact size provides maximum impact.
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Mixed Borders: Excellent for providing year-round structure and colour in mixed plantings. The seasonal colour transformation creates striking contrast with other plants whilst maintaining consistent form throughout the year.
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Hedge and Screen Plantings: Fabulous for creating attractive hedging and privacy screens, particularly effective for low hedging and border definition. The dense growth habit makes it excellent for creating neat, formal boundaries with added seasonal interest.
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Container Gardens: Ideal for container cultivation, making it perfect for patios, balconies, and courtyard gardens. The compact size and seasonal colour changes provide excellent value in container displays.
Seasonal Interest
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Spring Spectacle: New growth emerges with fresh light green foliage edged in cream, providing bright, clean colour as the garden awakens. The honey-scented flowers add delightful fragrance during late spring.
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Summer Transformation: The leaves start off light green with a cream edge and changing through late summer to autumn to a mottled green and burgundy effect, creating a beautiful tapestry of colours that intensifies as the season progresses.
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Autumn Transition: The colour transformation accelerates as temperatures drop, with pink and burgundy tones becoming more pronounced, creating enhanced colour contrast that signals the approaching winter display.
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Winter Drama: Moving to a deeper burgundy after frost, providing spectacular winter colour when many other plants are dormant. The rich burgundy foliage creates stunning contrast against winter landscapes.
Hardiness and Protection
Plant can withstand temperatures down to -10°C (14°F), making it frost hardy in most UK locations. Hardiness : H4 (Hardy through most of the UK) -10 to -5C. It may require protection in winter with a fleece jacket to keep frost away. Choose a position with shelter from cold winter winds for best performance.
Mature Size Expectations
reaches a maximum height of 1m with a spread of 80cm-1m when mature, developing into an attractive compact rounded shrub with dense branching. The slow growth rate allows for excellent garden planning whilst ensuring manageable size for smaller spaces.
Why Choose 'Bannow Bay'?
Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Bannow Bay' represents the perfect combination of compact size, spectacular seasonal colour transformation, and reliable garden performance in a single outstanding shrub. The dramatic colour changes from spring's fresh green and cream through summer's pink tones to winter's deep burgundy, combined with fragrant flowers and compact growth habit, creates a shrub that provides maximum garden impact with minimal maintenance requirements.
This exceptional variety offers outstanding value for gardeners seeking permanent structure and colour interest with the added benefits of manageable size and excellent adaptability. Whether used as specimen plantings, low hedging, container features, or mixed border highlights, 'Bannow Bay' provides the perfect balance of seasonal drama, compact form, and garden reliability that makes it an essential addition to any garden seeking truly remarkable year-round appeal with spectacular colour transformation and dependable performance.
Buying Shrubs from Jacksons Nurseries
At Jacksons Nurseries we sell a variety of shrubs both evergreen and deciduous with a variety of flowering times throughout the year. At certain times of the year our shrubs you buy from us may not look like the images shown on our website when deciduous leaves have fallen, the shrub has finished flowering or has been trimmed back.
Some leaves on evergreen shrubs can be damaged in winter by frost or harsh winds but in spring new leaves will readily replace those damaged. This is quite normal on many evergreen varieties and is preferable to plants grown with excessive protection that show cold shock once planted out and establish less satisfactory initially.
Availability: Stock availability figures are provided as a guide only. There is a delay between orders being placed and the plants being gathered by our pulling team. During this time it may be possible for a member of the public to purchase these plants from our Garden Centre, while this is rare it is a possibility and we will notify you of any problems as soon as possible. This figure may also include plants that have not yet be flagged as unsaleable.
Pre-order: Pre-order times are given as a guide only and may vary dependent on the growing season. Orders containing Pre-ordered products will be shipped as a single order when all items become available. Large orders may be part shipped, please contact us on 01782 502741 or email sales@jacksonsnurseries.co.uk.
* Please Note: Shrubs in 20 litre pots and above might require a pallet delivery starting at £79.99 per pallet. Depending on the exact pot size and height it may be possible to get approximately 5 plants per pallet at no extra cost. The maximum height we can dispatch on a pallet is 2.0m, this includes the height of the pallet and pot.
Shrubs are deciduous or evergreen woody plants, and often provide fragrant flowers, berries and foliage. They are good for structural framework, and they can provide a wonderful shelter and food source for wildlife.
Planting and Conditions
Container grown shrubs can be grown at any time of year. It is a little known fact that shrubs planted in the autumn and winter will be easier to look after than those planted in the spring and summer, because they will have time to establish and become hardy in the cooler months.
Plant the shrub at the same depth as it was in its original pot. Planting too deeply can result in root and stem rot.
One of the biggest causes of death in new shrubs is drought stress, so keep it well watered until it’s established.
Make sure you loosen the soil prior to planting. Most shrubs are tolerant of most soil types as long as it is fairly well draining.
Most shrubs will grow happily in containers, but they will be much more demanding on feeding and watering than shrubs in the ground would be. They will also need potting on every couple of years so that they don’t suffocate or become stunted in their pot.
Aftercare and Pruning
Once established, shrubs generally do not require much water. However, at first they need careful, frequent watering and should not be left to dry out.
Shrubs in the ground are generally not demanding and in most cases, annual feeding with general purpose fertilizer will suffice. Shrubs in containers may need more feeding; usually from early spring until late summer.
Shrubs also benefit from mulching in order to supress weeds, conserve moisture and provide vital nutrients. Mulch also greatly improves soil conditions. Shrubs can be mulched in late winter, after fertiliser has been applied, but it can be mulched through autumn to late spring as long as the ground is damp.
All shrubs benefit from dead-heading once spent flowers become apparent. Rhododendrons and Lilac especially benefit from the removal of dead flowers.
Some shrubs may show signs of reverted growth or ‘sporting’. This is where random shoots of different leaves associated with the plant’s parentage begin to appear. Most commonly this is where plants with variegated leaves sprout pure green growths instead of variegated ones.
To control reversion, remove reverted shoots promptly to discourage them. Reverted shoots are usually much more vigorous than the variegated ones, and thus should be completely pruned out and cut back into wood containing variegated foliage.
Potential Issues
Although shrubs are usually very robust garden plants, they can sometimes start to decline with no apparent or obvious reason.
This will start with browning leaves, which could indicate plant stress due to lack of water or waterlogging, an establishment failure or, in the worst case scenario, honey fungus. Another cause of leaf browning is a high salt content in the soil. This could be a natural occurrence, especially if you live near the ocean, or it could be from over fertilisation.
To remedy a high salt content, cut back on fertiliser and step up your watering regime for the next few weeks. If you live by the ocean, this will be harder to remedy—but stepping up your watering will help to wash some of the salt away all the same.
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