Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Tom Thumb' (Tom Thumb Tawhiwhi)
Compact Hardy Evergreen Shrub with Striking Dark Purple Foliage
Create dramatic year-round garden impact with Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Tom Thumb', a remarkable compact evergreen shrub that captivates with its distinctive dark purple foliage and striking architectural form. This slow-growing New Zealand native forms a perfect rounded ball shape, showcasing beautiful small, wavy-margined, deep purple leaves that contrast beautifully with pale green young growth and dark grey or black stems. Occasionally producing clusters of fragrant, tiny, dark red flowers in late spring, this exceptional variety provides outstanding ornamental value through its bold foliage colour and perfectly compact habit, making it ideal for creating dramatic focal points in any garden setting.
Key Features
- Plant Type: Hardy compact evergreen shrub
- Height: 1m
- Spread: 0.6m
- Flowering Period: May to June
- Flower Size: Small clusters of tiny flowers
- Flower Colour: Dark red to black-red with honey fragrance
- Foliage: Small, wavy-margined, deep purple leaves with pale green young growth
- Hardiness: Hardy in the UK down to temperatures of -10 to -5 degrees Celcius (RHS hardiness rating H4)
- Growth Habit: Slow-growing, dense, perfectly rounded ball shape
Striking Dark Purple Foliage
The outstanding feature of 'Tom Thumb' lies in its spectacular dark purple foliage that provides year-round dramatic impact. Small, wavy-margined, deep purple leaves create a bold architectural statement, whilst the pale green young growth provides striking contrast that intensifies the visual appeal. The glossy, leathery foliage appears in decorative shades of green, black, and purple, creating a sophisticated colour palette that brightens garden displays throughout all seasons.
Perfectly Compact Rounded Form
'Tom Thumb' naturally forms a perfect ball shape, making it ideal for formal garden designs and container cultivation. This compact, evergreen shrub maintains its distinctive rounded shape with minimal intervention, developing into an attractive architectural feature that provides excellent structural interest. The slow-growing habit ensures the plant remains manageable and perfectly proportioned for smaller garden spaces.
Distinctive Stem Colour
Adding to its ornamental appeal, 'Tom Thumb' features striking dark grey or black young stems that create beautiful contrast with the dark purple foliage. These dark stems provide additional architectural interest and enhance the plant's sophisticated appearance, making it particularly effective as a specimen feature or accent plant.
Fragrant Flowering Display
Though not a reliable flowerer, 'Tom Thumb' sometimes produces clusters of fragrant, tiny, dark red to black-red flowers in late spring and early summer. While the flowers are inconspicuous, their sweet honey scent fills the air with delightful perfume, creating a sensory experience that enhances the garden's appeal beyond the stunning foliage display.
Excellent Box Alternative
'Tom Thumb' makes an excellent low hedging alternative to Box in the garden, providing similar formal structure with enhanced ornamental value. The glossy, leathery foliage is easily trimmed and maintains its shape well, making it perfect for creating neat, formal boundaries with striking colour impact.
Growing Requirements
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Soil and Position: Easy to grow in fertile, moist but well-drained soil in full sun or partial shade. Adapts to various soil types but performs best when positioned with protection from cold, drying winds.
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Light Requirements: When grown in full sun, the compact shrub develops its most intense dark purple leaf colour. Happy in partial shade but best colour develops in full sun with adequate light reaching the heart of the shrub.
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Soil Preferences: Thrives in moist, well-drained soils. Avoid permanently waterlogged sites and ensure good drainage for optimal performance.
Care and Maintenance
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Pruning Requirements: Requires minimal pruning due to its naturally compact form. To thin or reduce growth, prune in mid-spring. The plant naturally forms a ball shape with minimal intervention, making it exceptionally low-maintenance.
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Watering Requirements: Water regularly during establishment and dry periods. Once established, shows reasonable drought tolerance but performs best with consistent moisture during growing season.
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Fertilising Programme: Apply a generous 5-7cm (2-3in) mulch of well-rotted garden compost or manure around the base in spring. Fertilise in early spring with a balanced fertiliser to promote robust growth and enhance foliage colour.
Design Applications
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Specimen Plantings: Outstanding as a standalone specimen where the dramatic dark purple foliage and perfect rounded form can be fully appreciated. Ideal for creating striking focal points in formal garden designs.
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Mixed Borders: Useful for colour accent in mixed plantings, providing excellent contrast with lighter-foliaged plants. The compact size makes it perfect for front-of-border positioning.
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Hedge and Screen Plantings: Makes excellent low hedging and formal boundary definition. The dense growth habit and easy trimming make it perfect for creating neat, structured garden divisions.
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Container Gardens: Ideal for container cultivation and perfect for patios, balconies, and courtyard gardens. The compact size and architectural form provide excellent value in pot displays and formal arrangements.
Seasonal Interest
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Spring Spectacle: New pale green growth emerges, creating beautiful contrast with the established dark purple foliage. Occasional honey-scented flowers add delightful fragrance during late spring.
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Summer Structure: The glossy dark purple foliage maintains its dramatic effect throughout summer, providing consistent architectural interest and serving as an excellent backdrop for brighter flowering plants.
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Autumn Consistency: The evergreen nature ensures continued structural interest as other plants fade, with the dark purple foliage becoming even more prominent in the autumn landscape.
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Winter Drama: The rich dark purple foliage provides spectacular winter colour when many other plants are dormant, creating stunning contrast against winter landscapes and maintaining garden interest year-round.
Hardiness and Protection
Plant can withstand temperatures down to -10°C (14°F), making it frost hardy in most UK locations. Hardy in the UK with RHS hardiness rating H4. Protect from cold, drying winds for best performance and position in a sheltered location for optimal growth.
Mature Size Expectations
Reaches a maximum height and spread of 1m (3ft) when mature, developing into an attractive perfectly rounded shrub with dense branching. The slow growth rate allows for excellent garden planning whilst ensuring manageable size for compact spaces and container cultivation.
Why Choose 'Tom Thumb'?
Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Tom Thumb' represents the perfect combination of dramatic foliage colour, compact architectural form, and reliable garden performance in a single outstanding shrub. The striking dark purple leaves, distinctive rounded shape, and striking dark stems, combined with minimal maintenance requirements and excellent hardiness, create a shrub that provides maximum visual impact with minimal effort.
This exceptional variety offers outstanding value for gardeners seeking permanent structure and bold colour interest with the added benefits of manageable size and excellent adaptability. Whether used as specimen plantings, low hedging, container features, or mixed border accents, 'Tom Thumb' provides the perfect balance of dramatic colour, compact form, and garden reliability that makes it an essential addition to any garden seeking truly remarkable year-round appeal with bold architectural presence 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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