Hedging plant Loropetalum chinense 'China pink' in flower

In February I composed a blog entry on the hedging plant Loropetalum chinense 'China pink'.

http://aggregata.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/hedging-plant-loropetalam-chinense-in.html

At the time the hedge had just been trimmed and as such the flowers and pink / red foliage were not on show. I walked past the same hedge in Fairfield last week and saw that it had been left long enough to reveal its most attractive features. The coloured foliage is from new growth only which is why it has coloured up now to a pink / red colour. The colour has nothing to do with the fact that it is now Autumn. The fact that the hedge can be left to turn red with flowers or trimmed back to a more traditional green foliage hedge can be useful. If you change your mind you can change the colour of this hedge by adjusting your pruning technique.

For more detailed information on Loropetalum chinense plants please check my original blog entry listed on the above link.

It's easy to see why this plant goes by the common name of fringe flower.



Masses of flowers on the top of the hedge.

You can see the red foliage coloured up nicely. If it is left untouched for another couple of weeks it would be nearly all red foliage.

Hedging plant Loropetalum chinense in Fairfield

As part of my horticulture certification I'm doing a class on plant identification and information re plants and their culture. This is my first plant. It's Loropetalum chinense 'China pink' which goes by the common name of Fringe flower. It originates from China and Japan and is used as an ornamental bush or as in this case, a hedge. Fringe flower plants can grow to 8 metres high with a spread of roughly 3 metres. They like need full sun and well drained soil. The water requirements for Loropetalum chinense are average. They are drought sensitive so irrigation is needed in times of prolonged dryness. They tolerate frost. This particular cultivar 'China pink' has pink flowers instead of white. It also has dark red / pinkish foliage but this only shows in new growth. This one has been recently trimmed which is why the foliage is nearly all green. It flowers in spring.

This Loropetalum hedge is growing in Fairfield, Victoria, Australia. Shortly before I photographed the hedge it was trimmed which explains the lack of flowers.

Well at least there were a couple of flowers on the hedge.

 Here is an example of what the new growth foliage looks like. Unfortunately it had been recently trimmed so it was nearly all green.