Have you given it enough water ?
My Pittosporum tenuifolium responded well to extra water..
and likewise the Pittosporum tobira ( photo of that on my latest blog) ... the old leaves are falling off as the new ones sprout...

I hope your Pittosporum survives...
which variety is it ?

.. and welcome to GoY :o)

On my gardening rounds, i have noted thirty three pittosporums completely gone, that is that all top growth has been killed off, however on cutting back most of these i have noticed shoots on a few of them emerging from the stump, give it a while longer just to make sure, julien.

This happened to my 10 year old Pittosporum tenuifolium Irene Patterson this year, the top was badly effected and a lot of leaf loss all over. Because of the leaf loss I have watered it very well, there is a lot of regrowth with flowers so I put a blood/fish feed around it last week. I lost Pittosporum 'Tobira' and Pittosporum eugenioides Variegatum but I expected to as I only planted them last summer and their roots hate real cold winters. Fingers crossed - mine are!

I've grown these plants for years and in cold winters they can die back a bit at the ends.
Prune the tree back to about 12" at least and new growth will appear - they benefit from regular pruning anyway and can stay relatively dormant when not done - definately better when done !

Although I have tidied it up about twice I have never needed to prune mine Louise, but this year is different. There is a lot of new growth and flowers which I want to watch first to see if it fills out again,but if I do give it a prune all over, when do you think I should do it?

The lower third of my Pittosporum tenuifolium has never grown back after pruning several years ago... I don't know why.. so I've now accepted that fact ... and started under-planting with other smaller shrubs ... and letting the top two-thirds of the Pittosporum do its own thing...

Prune out dead wood now, back to something that looks vaguely healthy. If you have to take a lot of wood to get a good shape, give the plant a good feed with something like Vitax Q4 raked in around the base, and water thoroughly if it needs it.
Drc, you can prune yours now, specially if its already flowered.

Oh bless you Bamboo.

Can I ask another question here please?.....I have a large Pittosporum tenuifolium which lost 90% of its leaves this winter...first time ever! I pruned it back a little...and it is flowering on the remaining part left in leaf. Now it has a few new leaves appearing on its lower branches...very few... but more appearing each day.

Should I prune back all the top deadwood NOW...or leave well alone? I've been dithering about this for weeks!

My Tom Thumb looked absolutely dead...but is now sprouting from the base! I nearly yanked it out last week!

Any obviously dead wood should be removed - its not serving any useful purpose at all.

Thanks Bamboo! " The lady doth dither TOO much!" methinks!

Isobel

Well, if you'd asked me that a month ago my answer would have been different - that dead growth might not have been dead, and it would have provided a bit of extra shelter in any cold snaps. Not so now the season's moved on a bit...