Chinese Fringe Flower

                                                                           
Evergreen – Sun to Part Shade

Loropetalum chineso ‘Plum Delight)                         Ht. 4-6’ Spread: 4-5’

lore-ah-PED-ah-lum chi-NENSE                               Spacing: 3’

HABIT: Evergreen or semi-evergreen rounded shrub with bronzy foliage and dramatic shocking pink flowers in late spring.

CULTURE:    Prefers moist, well-drained soils. Gets chlorotic under a chemical program. Really likes compost, organic fertilizers and a total organic program. Can be sheared.

USES: Color shrub.

PROBLEMS:  Chlorosis unless in healthy, organic soils.

QUESTION: We have several loropetalum shrubs (also called Chinese fringe flower). They are 5 years old, and after growing beautifully this spring, they are yellowing. What can we do? In addition, I planted vincas in four beds. Two beds are thriving, but in the other two, the vincas are turning yellow and dying. We replaced several plants, but that didn’t solve the problem. M.S., Fairview

ANSWER: Try drenching the plants with the new commercial Garrett Juice formula that contains fish emulsion, or add fish emulsion to a homemade Garrett Juice brew at a rate of 2 ounces per gallon. Neptune’s Harvest is a good fish fertilizer.  I don’t know what is wrong with the vincas, but loropetalum is not well-suited to our alkaline soils.

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