Chinese Fringe Flower Loropetalum chinense Purple Pixie

Purple Pixie is the dwarf weeping form of Chinese fringe flower: low, layered and spreading considerably wider than it ever grows tall, with stems that arch out and then hang. Mass planted it reads as a continuous dark burgundy carpet, and set on top of a wall or in a raised pot the stems tumble over the edge. Small clusters of pink strap petalled fringe flowers appear mainly in spring, with scattered flushes afterwards, but the foliage is what people buy and what carries the rest of the year.

Limey soil is what kills the colour

Purple Pixie suits temperate and subtropical gardens and is widely planted through Sydney, Brisbane and coastal Perth. It takes part shade to full sun, low to moderate water once settled, and it wants what the witch hazel family generally wants: acidic, free draining, organically rich soil. Spacing depends on the job. Plant around 600mm apart for a solid groundcover mat, wider if you would rather read the individual mounded plants. The failure mode is alkaline ground. On limey soils, on beds backfilled with builder rubble, or hard against a concrete path or slab where lime leaches out, the new growth comes through yellow with green veins, growth stalls and the burgundy never develops properly. That is an iron availability problem caused by pH, and the fix is soil sulphur, composted pine bark mulch and organic matter, not another dose of fertiliser. Test the bed before you commit to a whole run of them. In deep shade the leaves also drift towards a dull green, so give it light if the colour is the reason you chose it.

Groundcover, not a hedge

Buyers regularly order this expecting a hedge and get a carpet. If you want a shrub with height, take Plum Gorgeous instead, which is the same species grown upright and layered rather than weeping. Purple Pixie is the right pick for a bank, a low edge along a driveway, a mass planting under standards, or anywhere a dark, low, evergreen mat is wanted with no clipping at all. For a low edging hedge that holds a crisp clipped line and carries scent, Coleonema album does a different job at a similar height, with fine green foliage instead of burgundy. Both sit in the hedging range.

Light trimming and acid feeding

Trim lightly after the spring flush, taking the tips of any stem that has run out of the mass rather than cutting the plant back as a unit. Weeping forms lose their shape quickly under shears and take a long time to rebuild it. Cut out any strongly vertical shoot at its base, because those break the outline and stand above the carpet. Feed in early spring with a fertiliser formulated for azaleas and camellias, and top the bed up with composted pine bark each year, which feeds the plant and keeps the soil on the acid side at the same time.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 2 sizes, from 140mm up to 200mm, priced from $16.95 to $36.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to hedging plants for Australian conditions.