{"id":3251,"date":"2015-08-24T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=3251"},"modified":"2015-08-17T22:05:08","modified_gmt":"2015-08-18T02:05:08","slug":"crape-myrtles-with-awesome-bark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2015\/08\/24\/crape-myrtles-with-awesome-bark\/","title":{"rendered":"Crape Myrtles With Awesome Bark"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Light\u00a0Creamy\u00a0Bark of \u00a0‘Apalachee’<\/p><\/div>\n

\"L.<\/a>

L. ‘Townhouse’ at JC Raulston Arboretum<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Trunk<\/a>

Trunk Bark of L. fauriei ‘Fantasy’ at JC Raulston in Raleigh, NC<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many cultivars of crape myrtles are hybrids\u00a0that combine the large, colorful flowers of common crape myrtle (L. indica) <\/em>with the mildew-resistance and cold hardiness of Japanese crapemyrtle (L. faurei<\/em>). Many U.S. National Arboretum\u00a0hybrid releases excel with beautiful year-round\u00a0ornamental\u00a0bark.<\/p>\n

Among the tree forms are ‘Natchez’ (my favorite), ‘Apalachee’, ‘Lipan’, ‘Muskogee’, and Tuscarora’.\u00a0Natchez\u00a0possesses\u00a0extraordinary cinnamon brown winter bark\u00a0and is rated among the\u00a0hardiest\u00a0in\u00a0USDA hardiness zone 6.<\/p>\n

Some intermediate shrub crape myrtles also exhibit extraordinary bark that is often passed over by landscapers. Gardeners\u00a0should remove the lower lateral branches to\u00a0catch a\u00a0full view of\u00a0these better forms:\u00a0‘Acoma’, ‘Hopi’, ‘Sioux’, and ‘Tonto’.\u00a0Wait 5 to 6 years\u00a0to properly\u00a0evaluate these and other shrub types.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. Gary Knox, University of Florida crape myrtle authority,\u00a0\u2018Acoma\u2019 and \u2018Lipan\u2019 exhibit near white to creamy brown bark. This\u00a0trait is desirable\u00a0in the deep South\u00a0where white bark birch species (Betula spp<\/i>.)\u00a0do not\u00a0tolerate the intense summer heat and humidity.<\/p>\n

Japanese crapemyrtles (L. fauriei<\/em>)\u00a0possess some of the best winter bark color. These multi-branched trees grow taller, 40 feet\u00a0or more in height.\u00a0 On\u00a0the grounds of the J.C. Raulston Arboretum is a\u00a050 foot tall\u00a0specimen of \u2018Fantasy\u2019 with exquisite\u00a0cinnamon brown\u00a0flaking bark. Nearby is another outstanding L. fauriei<\/em> beauty ‘Townhouse’,\u00a0with a\u00a0darker brown bark. White flower spikes\u00a0in early summer tend to be\u00a0smaller but very abundant. Japanese crapemyrtles bloom only once a season.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Many cultivars of crape myrtles are hybrids\u00a0that combine the large, colorful flowers of common crape myrtle (L. indica) with the mildew-resistance and cold hardiness of Japanese crapemyrtle (L. faurei). Many U.S. National Arboretum\u00a0hybrid releases excel with beautiful year-round\u00a0ornamental\u00a0bark. Among the tree forms are ‘Natchez’ (my favorite), ‘Apalachee’, ‘Lipan’, ‘Muskogee’, and Tuscarora’.\u00a0Natchez\u00a0possesses\u00a0extraordinary cinnamon brown winter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,747,914,645,674,806,774,843,1060,601,630,706,646,7,1,850,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3251"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7944,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3251\/revisions\/7944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}