Gardening with Gael -  Finding Lizzie's favourite plant

 

I was driving around the back streets of Whangarei with my grandchildren Theo and Lizzie looking for a small garden centre advertising an interesting array of plants. It was about this time of the year a number of gardens featured an attractive plant with arching branches covered with deep burgundy wine overlapping foliage, an attractive spidery dark pink flower covered most of the branches. Lizzie pronounced it her favourite plant and I decided to grow one in the garden.

Loropetalum or Chinese fringe flowers belong to the witch hazel family. The name is derived from the Greek words for strap and petal, which suggests the shape of the long thin petals. A native to China, Japan and the Himalayas there are two forms of these attractive low maintenance shrubs. The first is the green leafed variety, which has a highly fragrant white flower, and the second is the pink flowering variety which has the purple leaves. A long living plant in their native habitat, they have been known to live for over a hundred years.

It has taken me a while to work out where these plants would be at their best in my garden. A trip to the Whangarei Skin Institute recently inspired me with a great idea. There, growing against a fence, was a very neatly clipped hedge (see photo) of the pink flowering variety. Space is at a premium in these circumstances and the plant cheered up an otherwise boring grey wall.

I have used them under the solar panels which hang from the north side of our deck. The lower edge of the panels stand about one-and-a-half metres from the ground. Water drips fairly constantly from the panels so anything below is kept moist. Loropetalums enjoy a slightly acidic soil which retains moisture preferably on a north facing part of the garden. They also like a cool root run and as there is a gravel path running along the edge of the garden this seems a perfect place for them.

Google articles mention that they can grow in part shade. My experience so far with them makes me tend to the mostly sun side. Once established they are quite drought tolerant. Prune once they have finished flowering to regulate the height required. Cut out the top growing tip and any larger vertical shoots to encourage the plant to spread and to keep the size and shape you hope for. I have plans for a neat and tidy border; neat and tidy not usually words associated with my garden!

On the other side of the path are dahlias which go from nothing to huge flowering masses in a couple of weeks. They require staking and usually end up sprawled across the path. I don’t think they are going to be the right companions for my very happy loropetalums. It is time they were dug up, divided and transplanted elsewhere. I have been monitoring the amount of sun available to that part of the garden because I think that loropetalums either side of the path would make a most attractive ‘walk’.

I bought some loropetalum ‘China Pink’ from Che (the Te Arai Palm Guy) at the market for my hedge. Deep burgundy leaves contrast beautifully with the bright pink flowers. I love it when we can buy our plants locally.

It has taken me a while to work out where the loropetalum would be at their best in my garden.

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