I'm unconvinced its Portugal laurel - is this plant in the ground or in a pot? If its in the ground, I'd have expected much more growth were it Portugal Laurel, given the time you've had it.

And you say its not deciduous? Annoyingly, I found something on line that has crimson edged leaves with red stems, looked exactly like yours, but when I went to the site, it no longer existed, so all you could see was the original photo with the byline beneath which gave the description (crimson edged leaves, red stems) and said 'dogwood' , which is Cornus, but they're deciduous.

Hmm...Dogwoods all have opposite leaves, too, which this one doesn't.

Wasn't sure I believed the byline, which is why I went to the site, to find it no longer exists, Tug... lots of misidentifications on line... I also don't know of a Cornus which has crimson edged leaves...

did you say this plant was a standard, BarbaraK?

In 2015 I took a cutting from a friend who lives in the Dordogne area of France, then grew it into a standard in a pot. It's about 3ft tall at the moment. It's a bit sparse as I took off the frost damaged leaves, have now pinched out the growing tips to try and encourage side shoots.

What made you decide to take a cutting - were there flowers on the plant, or did your friend say it flowered?

I just liked the Crimson stems against the green back ground. Hers was a bushy shrub but as I thought it was a bay at the time I thought I would try for a standard- I'me always one for a challenge.