Thursday, July 23, 2009

Dwarf Crepe Myrtle


The summer after I moved to this house in Tulsa's Brookside area I planted four dwarf Crepe Myrtles across the west side of my front flower bed. That would have been early summer of 1994. When I moved into this little house it had not one single tree or shrub. Bit by bit I started landscaping the front and back.


I had the idea of planting hardy perennials that would grow and bloom with a minimum of care. While dwarf Crepe Myrtle is not usually thought of as a bedding plant but it seemed like it would work. It had a compact growth pattern, it bloomed continuously from early summer until frost, and it is virtually indestructible. I prune it back to about 18 inches every winter and in the spring it takes off again. It has survived being moved when I moved everything around at the time we did some concrete work on the driveway and front sidewalk. I have a variety of perennials all around the place. The idea is that something is blooming all the time and nothing requires much care.

3 comments:

Anonymous said... [Reply to comment]

I've just been looking in my RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) encyclopedia for Crepe Myrtle and we don't seem to have anything by that name. We do have common or garden Myrtle which produces black berries in the autumn. Your Crepe Myrtle looks very pretty and what a useful ground-covering plant.

Anne

RennyBA said... [Reply to comment]

I looked closer at the pics and are sure we have them in Norway too. Yours are bigger however - probably because of a longer season :-)

Unknown said... [Reply to comment]

nne - Look here: http://www.blueworldgardener.co.uk/articles/crape_myrtle.html