Re: loropetalum

From: RYFigge@aol.com

I heard about this plant from people in Okla., I believe, and decided I HAD 
to have it ---then investigating myh card file, I found I HAVE it under the 
above name and looked it up in the "bible" -- DIRR --but it does not give the 
Razzleberry name, or whatever they called it!  Dirr calls it "Loropetalum 
chinense" and to abstract what he says: the leaves are alternate, simple, 
evergreen, ovate-rounded,  1 - 2 /2" lopng and 3/4 to 1 1/4" wide and apex 
pointed.  dark green (mine is more dark plum?)and rough above, paler beneath  
.  
Grows 6 - 10' high and spread. - but someone here says for this area it would 
probably be 2' each way.  Mine is about a 2' tall and 3 ft across..
Hardiness is zone 8 to 9.  Mine (zone 7)  is more or less against the house  
with eastern exposure in a.m. -- and some sun until late morning. Dirr says 
it grows in shade
Flowers - perfect, fragrant, four, cream to white, strap-shaped - last 2 to 3 
weeks. I must have the cultivar "Roseum" which Dirr says was imported by 
Arnold Arboretum and they are working on increasing this.
Additional notes say it is frequently misidentified because it looks like 
some of the honeysuckles and cotoneasters , but NOT like the witch-hazel 
family and that it deserves to be more widely planted in southern gardens!! 
Originally fromChina - and Japan, imported 1880.
Its value for landscaping is tremendous -- borders, screens, foundations, -- 
lived thru -3 degrees in Georgia --- and is known to grow in suburban Phila.
Di\rr says a lot more - that's a wonderful tome for woody landscape plants 
(trees and bushes)  the one place I find the unusual that I have in my garden 
-- why bother with Norway maples etc with leaves to rake, when you can have 
something different and exciting! and flower along with the irises.

I have a call in to the horticulture gardens that has done most of my 
planting to see if they can get it etc     Maybe we have to go to Okla!!!!   
- I also want a bayberry of the opposite sex!  Mine doesn't have the gray 
berries.  Rosalie nr Baltimore, USA    zone 7  ryfigge@aol.com

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