Tag: crape myrtle trees

Crepe myrtle, the blooming belle of the South, needs help in a dry climate

On my continuing travels through Louisiana, I have noticed that few homes have anything that resembles a garden with shrubs and flowering plants artfully arranged.  The more common gardening feature is the lawn, a large mowed green area around the home.  Upon taking a closer look, I realized that many “lawns” are simply native grasses and other low growing plants sheared to slightly above ground level.  It is an act of self-defense. Extremely fast-growing native shrubs and trees take over every space that is not regularly cut back in this hot, damp climate.

Crepe myrtle trees Opelousas Louisiana
A garden has been planted around the Oplousas Louisiana courthouse including purple and pink Crepe myrtles.

The exception to this emphasis on lawns, are the Crepe myrtle trees (Lagerstroemia indica) planted by homeowners. They are ubiquitous.

These natives of southern China were introduced into Charleston, South Carolina by plant explorer and botanist to King Louis XVI, André Michaux, in the mid 1700s.  The name is sometimes spelled Crape myrtle, but Crepe myrtle now seems preferred.  Whatever the spelling, they took the South like wildfire.  People loved them.

hot pink crepe myrtle flowers
This hot pink color seems to be the most popular Crepe myrtle. It is a bright contrast to the green of the South and the brown of the southwest.

And Crepe myrtles loved the heat, lots of sunlight and the slightly acidic soil.

Some newer hybrids have been developed to tolerate chillier winter conditions, including frost.  And–surprisingly–they are somewhat drought tolerant.

Correcting alkaline soil conditions

It’s that “acidic soil” part that is an issue in a hot, dry climate. Most of the soils in the desert Southwest are alkaline, but alkaline soils can be corrected to a soil condition that Crepe myrtles love in two ways:

  • Add 4 to 6 inches of organic mulch and dig it in to a depth of one foot. Within a year or two the soil will become more neutral.  Mulch should be added every year.
  • Add sulphur to the soil and dig it in which will also balance the pH.  While this maybe a faster way to rebalance soil, be very careful with this because too much sulphur can be harmful.

And be sure to deep water your Crepe myrtle tree at least once a month in summer. Drought tolerant doesn’t mean “no-water-required.”

Here are some Crepe myrtles I’ve admired in Louisiana:
plant explorer and botanist to King Louis XVI André Michaux ink and hot pink crepe myrtles
Two colors of Crepe myrtles planted together. The neighbor, behind, planted a white one which is now at least 25 feet tall.
row of crape myrtle trees
These Crepe myrtles have been carefully pruned to allow an open area beneath them on the University of Louisiana campus. Their broad growth is a characteristic of the hybrid. Some hybrids grow tall and narrow, some broad, and there are dwarf hybrids that are perfect for hedges.
White crepe myrtle tree Lafayette Louisiana
White Crepe myrtle trees are less common than the various shades of pink and purple. This one was ladened with white flowers. This home actually has a small garden planted around it!

Our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  2. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  3. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  4. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  5. Cover up that naked wall
  6. Nine trees to combat climate change
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

How much should you feed and water your garden in scorching summer heat?

For months now in 2018 the daily high air temperature has been above 90 degrees (F)  (32C) which means that plants in hot dry gardens in the Northern Hemisphere have gone into summer dormancy. Even drought-tolerant plants and natives just hunker down and try to survive until Fall when the air and earth cool down. (One of the few summer bloomers is the Crape Myrtle tree, shown above.)

As your garden’s best friend and caretaker, you should water the plants regularly, but do not fertilize the plants in your arid garden in an attempt to make them bloom or grow. They are thirsty at this time of year but not hungry now so deep irrigation is best. They do not want to grow. They do not want to produce seeds. And only a few bloom during summer dormancy phase.

Blooming color in summer

Crape myrtle white and pink
Crape Myrtle blooms in hot pink and white, both shown here. They also have paler shades of pink and even one with lavender blossoms. Best of all they love the heat!

My absolute favorite of the summer bloomers is the hot pink Crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica), a native of India and China that thrives all across the southern U.S. in both dry and damp climates.  By nature the Crape Myrtle prefers acidic soil, not the alkaline soils of the American West.  In the South where the soil is acidic and it rains in summer, the Crape myrtle grows to 20+ feet tall. In the very dry hot Southwest, the trees bloom beautifully but rarely reach that height.

If you are planning to plant a Crape Myrtle tree this fall after the weather and earth cool off, be sure to add a lot of organic materials to the soil around it and water the root ball thoroughly–soak it through–before it goes into the ground to encourage good root growth.  It’s a good idea to mulch around the tree every year so it remains happy and blooming every midsummer.

Climate Change Update

During this last month in the summer of 2018, people in Spain, Japan, and countries around the world experienced record-breaking temperatures of 117 degrees (F) (47 Celsius) and higher. Off the coast of La Jolla, California, the usually cool Pacific Ocean temperature was 78 degrees which is 10 degrees above normal. At the southern end of Florida, the water temperature reached 98F (36 C) Some fish, of course, can swim away from uncomfortable temperatures, but underwater plants and slow moving and non-moving animals are stuck and may die out.

Our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  2. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  3. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  4. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  5. Cover up that naked wall
  6. Nine trees to combat climate change
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat