When we treat crape myrtles right

Anyone who knows me is aware that I’m a fanatic for crape myrtles, the South’s most popular summer-flowering shrub.

Lynn and I had been at church in McKinney, then to lunch with our son and his two youngest children this past Sunday. We stopped by our favorite dairy store for milk, and leaving, we turned from McDermott north onto Alma in Allen.

“Pull over, Lynn. I have to take photos,” I said. These were just too pretty not to shoot. I thought about the things we can learn from this mile of beauty.

1. If we don’t “top” our crape myrtles, we can get 3, maybe 4 rounds of blooms out of them each summer. I believe this is the fourth for these plants.

2. That presumes, of course, that the plants are fertilized and watered regularly. If they’re not, we’ll be lucky to get one good bloom cycle. This neighborhood landscape always looks great.

3. I’m not sure which variety this is, but I’ve never seen any freeze damage in them, so I’d imagine they’re one of the old Lagerstroemia indica hybrids. The gray trunks would also support that. The newer hybrid L. fauriei varieties have cinnamon shades in their trunks. It’s been our experience that some of the common L. fauriei hybrids (Natchez, Tuscarora, Sioux, and Muskogee) tend to be just a bit less winter-hardy. In any event, it’s a strong-growing type that starts flowering in June and repeats with new cycles every 3 to 4 weeks.

4. These plants have never been topped. When we cut crape myrtles back for whatever purported reason, we not only ruin their beautiful winter growth forms forever, but we also delay their first round of blooms by 7 or 8 weeks into the summer.

5. There is a lot to be said for a planting of one color like this. It adds so much impact to the display. Reds and rich purples, in my opinion at least, show up the best. Whites, light pinks, and lavenders tend to wash into the background.

Those are my few random thoughts. I was so inspired by this planting that I wanted to share it with you before they close down for the season. Well done, neighbors in Allen.

And this just in!
Monday afternoon we were out and about in Northwest Plano where I go for my haircuts. As we headed south on Independence just north of McDermott there was a row of crape myrtles in full, rich bloom on the east side of the street.

I told Lynn I’d need to stop after my haircut for one more photo for this story. By then the line of parents waiting to pick up their kids at the elementary school had formed. I had to take whatever photo I could get. But you can still see how lovely the crape myrtles were. In full bloom on September 16. Probably still are. All because they’ve been irrigated.

Nice work.