How should I shape my pittosporum

Hi 

I have this pittosporum in my front garden however it's grown 3 x its original size in as many years. It works as a good 'screen' to distract passers by from looking into the house however I'm thinking it's stating to get a little too big and now feel the need to 'tidy' it a bit. 

My question is should I be looking to acheive a particular shape or what would you recommend I do to tidy / cut it back a little. And when please? 

Thank you all.

I've got a couple of those that are suddenly getting a bit large and was wondering today what I could do. I did think I might take off some of the lower stems so that I can plant under it a bit, but I'm not sure what to do about shaping the top as I don't want it to look beheaded!

there is an article on eHow on pruning pittosporum. i have cut and pasted the address - best I could manage with my present IT knowledge!

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_8653884_prune-overgrown-pittosporum.html

Pittosporum, shorten any straggles in Spring.Trim established bushes in early spring (April-May) to maintain a shape.
In other words keep nibbling at it reducing some of the growth a little at a time until you have tamed it.

Frank.

Thanks Frank and Gardening Grandma. 2 very useful bits of information

Dont prune it in the autumn as a hard winter will get into the cut ends and will result in dieback and possible death of the bush.  Trim back lightly in april and allow for bush to heal over and to produce a small amount of new growth which will harden off by the start of winter.  Never hard prune pittosporum as they do not respond well. 

Wow, thank you all so much for your expert advice it's really appreciated. 

So i'm presuming a light trim now (July) is not advised? Also, I was wondering if I took out the bottom branches of the tree it would look neater and I could plant something underneath. And if so, what could I plant there as it's dry underneath and also clay soil.

Thanks again 

Lennyboy, now would be a good time to very lightly trim your bush, you may lose some of the winter blossom but it will keep it tidy.
There so many plants that will go under although I use Cranes-bill, Geranium Grandiflorum, it is low growing and if you dig some compost into the ground on planting it will thrive and come year after year. Once it has flowered you can cut it right back, the foliage will regrow and you get a second flowering, you can vary the colours so it will flower at differing times.
Hope this helps

Frank.

Apart from a full north facing wall the sun will reach part of the garden at some time in the day. Directly under the bush at high noon there may be a dark time.
Take a look say on an hourly basis some day if ever we get any sun and see just what it gets. Have you thought about trying a fern of the woodland variety, or you could put a shade lover in and see how it goes.
All gardening is experimental as no two gardens are the same so play it by ear try a few things, I do it all the time, often just to prove the experts wrong.

Frank.

Am I being inattentive , because people keep talking about pitto. flowers. I've got 4 different varieties in my garden and have never seen a flower on any of them. I know they are supposed to be small flowers but when should I get the magnifying glass out, which month?

Late spring and early summer. 

I have a dark leaved pitto (think its tom thumb) only been in a coming up to a year the new growth is quite a bright green, is this normal will it turn dark over the winter or has it reverted to a green variety, mine is a ball shape which looked good when it was planted at the front of the border but has now lost its shape a bit with the new growth, I will wait until the spring to re-shape.

Its normal notgreen, panic not. Pruning now is fine - there's time yet for the ends to toughen up, and probably even to regrow a fair bit. Most geraniums (unless they're labelled as needing full sun) will do absolutely fine in shade, though IMHO you look a little bit tight for space. You might also consider ajuga reptans - one of the purple-leaved varieties. Commonly available and ultra easy.