A beautiful evergreen shrub with interesting looking flowers that range from white to intense pink depending on the variety. In Not Quite Happily Ever After Sara plants a purple leaved Loropetalum in front of her Virburnum plicatum (Snowball bush) to keep the deer from eating the Viburnum, and also for the amazing color contrast in fall. There seem to be an endless variety of leaf colors, all with at least some reddish blush to muted green leaves up to the incredibly intense 'Pippa's Red.' There are a lot of named varieties, with some of them carrying several names. Loropetalum are evergreen unless there is a very hard frost, and they will often bounce back from losing their leaves. Also, although some varieties tend to be smaller than others they all seem to slowly keep growing and getting larger. After the main flowering is a good time to prune them. Loropetalum prefers a cool environment but with regular water will grow well in full sun and also tolerate pretty deep shade. In the picture the reddish foliage behind the Loropetalum in the foreground is from two different dark leaved Cotinus coggygrias, the purple smoke bush, and an Acer platinoides 'Deborah'.
