We are so excited at how well our five crape myrtles are doing. For a while we thought maybe they wouldn't bloom during the first year after we planted them (last fall). But they are now in full bloom and they look extremely happy out there all along the front sidewalk. Our crape myrtles are called "Muskogee" and they are supposed to grow into medium sized trees that will stop growing just before they get to the power lines.
We are ever so slightly disappointed at how pink they are - it seems like they were less pink and more purple when we bought them last fall. They almost matched the front door. I guess I'm just going to have to go for a blending of various shades of blue and purple now. That will probably look better than the matchy-matchy effect anyway. I wonder if our soil has slightly affected the crape myrtle color? It makes a huge difference for hydrangeas. I also wonder whether our new hydrangea will eventually switch over to being pink in its new location. I guess we'll have to wait and see!
1 comment:
Hello, I stumbled across your blog. It's very interesting and I think I'll look in a bit. Anyway, I'm not sure if acidity affects crape myrtles--we have two large old ones of different colors (light purple and burgundy-ish) and three smaller ones (all white). The big ones are about 30' high, the small ones 10-12'. There's one nearby that must be well over 60' high. These are slow-growing, so it must be very old.
Crape myrtles are very popular in our area (Fresno, CA) as they take the high heat of summer well. We just had 21 days over 100F, 18 of them consecutive.
We don't trim them too much, just the branches that are growing out too far. I like the branches crossing over each other and growing together. A city botanist said that is a good thing as they get old and tall as it becomes self-supporting in the wind.
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