{"id":6710,"date":"2016-06-04T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2016-06-04T16:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=6710"},"modified":"2017-09-13T16:46:40","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T20:46:40","slug":"recommendations-on-hardy-crape-myrtles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2016\/06\/04\/recommendations-on-hardy-crape-myrtles\/","title":{"rendered":"Recommendations On Hardy Crape Myrtles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lovely<\/a>

Lovely bark on ‘Tonto’ crape myrtle at Chanticleer<\/p><\/div>\n

\"'Acoma'<\/a>

‘Acoma’ crape myrtle<\/p><\/div>\n

Crape myrtles are dependable trees and shrubs in zones 7\u00a0– 10. In northern areas of USDA zone 6, a number of crape myrtle varieties (cultivars) are\u00a0rated as\u00a0winter hardy perennials <\/strong>but\u00a0not develop into a full sized woody tree or shrub described on the plant tag.\u00a0In northeastern U.S. cities such as Philadelphia, Wilmington or Baltimore, crape myrtles are rated as hardy perennials.<\/p>\n

In record breaking cold winters\u00a0main branches and trunks frequently\u00a0dieback near\u00a0the ground and need to be cut back near the ground.\u00a0Dieback\u00a0may occur 1-2 years every decade. By mid-spring new shoots should\u00a0vigorously sucker back from the ground. From several new shoots, select 1, 3, or 5 strong shoots to develop a new single or multi-trunk tree or shrub. Fertilize when\u00a0you see emerging shoots. It will likely bloom on the new shoots by late summer.<\/p>\n

In the northeastern\u00a0U.S. select varieties, some\u00a0public gardens have found to be hardy. Andrew Bunting, plant curator at the Scott Arboretum (campus of Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA) reported the following cultivars survived\u00a0the frigid winter 2013-4 with virtually no damage:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

fauriei<\/em> ‘Fantasy’ (35 ft. tree form, small white flowers)<\/p>\n

fauriei<\/em> ‘Townhouse’ (30 ft. tree, small white flowers)<\/p>\n

indica<\/em> ‘Carolina Beauty’ (tree form, small deep pink flowers)<\/p>\n

indica<\/em> \u2018Pink Velour\u2019 (10 12 ft. shrub, small\u00a0bright pink)<\/p>\n

x ‘Acoma’ (10-12 ft. shrub, large pure white)<\/p>\n

x ‘Lipan’ (26-28 ft. tree, large\u00a0lavender flowers)<\/p>\n

x ‘Muskogee’ (26-28 ft. tree, large pink flowers)<\/p>\n

x ‘Natchez’ (28-30 ft. tree, large white flowers)<\/p>\n

x ‘Osage’ (15-18 ft. tree, large clear pink)<\/p>\n

x Tuscarora’ (28-30 ft. tree,\u00a0large dark pink)<\/p>\n

x Tuskegee’ (28 ft. tree, large dark pink)<\/p>\n

Many of the hardiest cultivars, now numbering 33 originated\u00a0from the U.S. National Arboretum breeding program. If you wish to start\u00a0out with just 3 or 4 varieties, select ‘Natchez’ and \u2018Muskogee\u2019 (tree forms) and ‘Acoma’ and ‘Osage’ (shrub forms).<\/p>\n

Addendum<\/span>: For many years Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA has grown ‘Tonto’ in a partially protected area (see photo).\u00a08-10 ft. shrub, red flowers,\u00a0light tan\u00a0bark<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crape myrtles are dependable trees and shrubs in zones 7\u00a0– 10. In northern areas of USDA zone 6, a number of crape myrtle varieties (cultivars) are\u00a0rated as\u00a0winter hardy perennials but\u00a0not develop into a full sized woody tree or shrub described on the plant tag.\u00a0In northeastern U.S. cities such as Philadelphia, Wilmington or Baltimore, crape myrtles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[914,645,1115,665,601,729,630,706,7,850,455,162,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710"}],"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=6710"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10006,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710\/revisions\/10006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}