Crapemyrtles (Lagerstroemia indica), native to China but long cultivated in India, arrived at England's Kew Gardens from Asia in the mid–eighteenth century. Widespread European cultivation of crapemyrtles began about thirty years later.
Introduced by French botanist Andre' Michaux in Charleston, South Carolina near the end of the 18th century, common crapemyrtles have been a mainstay of southern American horticulture ever since. (Photo #1) George Washington received plants from the West Indies to grow at Mount Vernon around the same time. Thomas Jefferson also planted crapemyrtles at Monticello. The earliest crapemyrtle cultivars come from these sources.
Garden Resources of Crapemyrtles
Gardens in Williamsburg, VA exhibit plantings of common crapemyrtle in historical settings. Plantings at the 18th century Lightfoot House on Francis Street include historically accurate crapemyrtle, purpleleaf plums, yaupon holly hedges, and tree box topiary, enhanced by shade tree cover of red oak, red maple, Norway spruce, pecan, redbud, and mulberry. (Photo #2)
Crapemyrtle blooms from July through September at Colonial Williamsburg. In a May 29, 2006 Colonial Williamsburg podcast, former NBC journalist Lloyd Dobyns interviews interpretive gardener Wesley Green about his knowledge of 18th-century plants in the colonial gardens along Duke of Gloucester Street. Green says "The crapemyrtle is probably best known here in Williamsburg to our northern visitors in the fall time, because it does not grow much farther north of here, so it depends the time of season what is in bloom. The nice thing about a garden, it’s always a little bit different."
Modern cultivars of crapemyrtle species and cultivars beautify the streets of McKinney, TX. The not-for-profit Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney Foundation, formed in 1998, is responsible for this urban beautification. More than 4,000 crapemyrtles currently enhance approximately 15 miles of median strips within McKinney's city limits.
The Foundation's goals are to:
- encourage travel and tourism to McKinney by providing dozens of miles of crape myrtle plantings along major thoroughfares and throughout public, school and industrial properties; and
- establish "The World Crapemyrtle Collection Park" where all known varieties of crapemyrtles will grow and to be studied side-by-side. Currently, a collection of this kind does not exist anywhere else in the world.
Crapemyrtle Breeding and Selection
The role of crapemyrtles in American horticulture changed in the 1950s when John Creech, U.S. National Arboretum (U. S. N. A.), introduced Japanese crapemyrtles (L. fauriei). Compared to common crapemyrtle, Japanese crapemyrtles:
- grow faster – 2-4' per year,
- produce rusty red-brown bark early in maturity, (Photo #3)
- are somewhat hardier – through plant hardiness zone 6, and probably most importantly,
- exhibit resistance to powdery mildew.
Japanese crapemyrtles brought new genetic resources to the U. S. N. A. crapemyrtle breeding program, especially to the work of Dr. Don Egolf (1928-1990). Results included cultivars of hybrids between Lagerstroemia indica and L. fauriei introduced by the U. S. N. A.
Landscape gardeners now have many sizes and forms of crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia) cultivars from which to choose. Choices can suit almost every southern and southwestern landscape setting.
Categories of Available Crapemyrtle Cultivars
- True Dwarf – 2 to 5' (Photo #4)
- Semi–Dwarf – 5 to 12'
- Intermediate – 13 to 20'
- Tree – type – 21 to 33'
More Suite101 Articles about Plants for Southern Gardens:
- Flowering Plants for Southern Garden Landscapes: Athens Select™ Plants and Southern Living™ Plant Collections in 2009
- Deer-resistant Loropetalums: New Dwarf Cultivars Featured in Southern Living™ Plant Collection
Georgene A. Bramlage - Suite 101 Landscaping Feature Writer and Topic Editor Free-lance Garden and Landscape Writer and Consultant
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