Generally, high light levels promote a fuller plant. Yes, you can use heading-back cuts to also promote a denser growth habit. Using your hand pruning shears, or if the stems in question are too stout a lopping shears, cut back to either a side branchlet, or if none are present, a bud. This will promote the look and structure you're after. But too much shade will confound your efforts. I don't know much about this southern plant, but if it needs lots of sun, make sure it's getting it. If it has shade tolerance, so much the better.

+oM

Many loropetalums are actually small (but brushy) trees, so that is their natural inclination. You have to really keep after them (prune -- like numerous times a year) to keep them smaller and full. In your climate, probably every 3 to 4 weeks?

That said, there are smaller cultivars of Loropetalum which you might want to consider.

But these are very resilient shrubs and you can really prune them back quite a ways. They will resprout from dormant buds along the stems provided they get access to sun. All you'll see will be sticks for a few weeks, but they will soon fill out. Otherwise, selectively prune some branches way back into the shrub, let them sprout, then prune the remainder. This may take a season or two.

Thanks for the replies. I should have mentioned that this is the Ever Red, supposedly reaching 6'x6'. It gets 10 hours of unencumbered sun. It just looks so darned scraggly, with long, kite-string thin branches with leaves mostly towards the ends. All the other ones in my area look so full. I pinched it back and hope it helps. I will post a pic so you can see how "airy" it looks.

I do have some of the smaller Purple Pixie variety, as well, l and those are fabulously dense without any help from me. I am not trying to keep the Ever Red small, I am merely trying to get it to be full, like I believe it should be. I just hope I don't have a dud. It did bloom beautifully, though, and hopefully that is a positive sign. If only the leaves were as dense as the flowers were.

10 hrs. of direct sun a day is well into the classification "full sun", so you're good there. Maybe what Dave is saying....that this plant just does not have good form?

+oM

i dont prune anything for 2 years... letting a new transplant.. grow a mature root mass ...

leaves are the food making machine of the plant.. so you dont go cutting them off... or you will prolong root mass maturity ...

you really need to give us a pic or two.. if you want useful info ...

i simply dont understand.. how a plant planted in summer.. grew leggy.. all that fast ... somethings wrong with those words ...

did you fert at planting?????

ken

Yeah, like what Ken said. Likely it's leggy because it is still getting established from being newly planted. Many evergreens drop leaves in response to stress, the winter, or as they get established.

A pic would be helpful to show how it looks now, and then your expectations of it.

OK, here are some pics of the Ever Red Loropetalum in question, which is in my backyard. It was a 5 gallon planted last summer, and gets sun from 9:30 til 4pm.

Note how you can see right through it. This is after I pinched back the tips.

This is a top view, which might help you see its growth habit.

This is one of three 1 gallon Ever Reds in my front yard that were planted at the same time, obtained by the same place from the same stock. They get sun from noon until sunset. Even though someone stepped on it and broke some branches, note how much more dense and richer it looks.

It's easy to see that it is well on its way to being as dense as these.

----- Link to pic that shows what the plants looked like when I bought them (but not the exact same plants) -----

Below is one of three Purple Pixie variety I have in my backyard, but with sun only from 9:30 til 2:00. I also have 3 of them in front yard, and although like the Ever Reds these are also rated as "full sun", I've noticed the foliage of these Purple Pixies in less sun is more purple than the other Purple Pixies and Ever Reds in full sun. You can see that the leaves of the Ever Red in the top pic are already becoming multi-colored. Is it possible that these purple loropetalums really prefer partial shade more than full sun (maybe in my part of the world, which is just east of Sacramento?

Can't really comment on the foliage color.

But I think individual plants just need more time to get established than others. I think that's what's happening with your EverRed. Mine took several years to fill out. I just kept pinching back the newest growth. It eventually filled in (then it got killed by a really cold winter -- but that's another story).

The Purple Pixies look to be a really nice dense cultivar.

OK, I will just keep pinching back to maintain the silhouette of the shape I want, and as Ken mentioned, not take off much the foliage that is the "food making machine". Thanks so much for your guys' help! :-)