Here's a list of red crapes. Some may be redder than others, but all are pretty reddish. If you want to use the list to pick one for your landscape, be sure to confirm the provided info. Cultivar (TM Name)/ Height / Form / Mildew Resistance Arapaho / 20'+ / upright / high Centennial Spirit / 8'-12' / upright / good Cherokee / 8'-10' / globose / good Cheyenne / 8'-12' / rounded / high Christiana / 8'-10' / upright / fair Coral Sport / 8'-10' / upright / fair Gamad I (Cherry Dazzle) / 3'-5' / small dwarf / high Mandi / 6'-12' / dwarf / fair Moned (Chica Red) / 2'-5' / small dwarf / fair Moners (Petite Embers) / 5' / upright dwarf / fair Monimp (Petite Red Imp) / 4'-5' / upright dwarf / fair Okmulgee / 3'-6' / dwarf upright / fair Red Filli / 1.5'-2' / dwarf spreading / fair? Rubra Compacta / 6'-8' / compact / ? Tonto / 6'-12' / compact globose / high Victor / 3'-5' / upright dwarf / good Watermelon Red / 20'-25' / upright / fair Weeping Alamo Fire / 2'-3' / weeping, miniature / fair Wit II (Dynamite) / 20'-25' / upright / good Whit IV (Red Rocket) / 20'+ / upright / high Whit V (Tightwad Red) / 2'-4' / dwarf / high Whit VII (Siren Red) / 10'-12' / upright / high Whit IX (Double Feature) / 6'-8' / compact globose / high

Anybody know about Burgundy Cotton? How well they bloom? Fall color? I'm trying to figure out a good color combination for my backyard. I'm thinking of a row of light pink with a row of dark purple in front of that. So I'm thinking of the Burgundy Cotton in the back with Zuni or Catawba in the front. I know that Burgundy Cotton is said to have white flowers, but I've seen it in person and it's more of a very light pink, which I think would look nice with the purple. I did a combo of red and pink in the front (dynamite and Sioux) so I'm trying to do a different color combo in the back. Fall color is important to me. Thanks in advance for your advice.

Well, I don't have much info to offer so far, but within a few years I should have lots of data. Background: I live in Vancouver, WA, have south facing yard and a whole bunch of pavement around which I can plant things that will get pretty hot. Results so far: Purple Magics I got at Al's Garden Center last year have flower buds developing. I started to see the first ones probably around late July. I thought wow I will get flowers soon but it appears they take a long time to develop. It is mid August now. I feel optimistic that at least some of these will bloom before the cold season sets in. These were so cheap I scattered 9 of them throughout the yard and I figure that the ones that developed flower buds sooner are probably the better locations. (I am convinced HOT is the key. However, you do have to be careful with the leaves of ones you planted this season wilting, even if you water them well. My Cherry Dazzle appears to not be blooming, even though it is in the hottest spot in my yard. However, it lost most of its leaves last summer so it may be concentrating on building up its strength this summer rather than flowering. My Catawbas and Tuscaroras are not showing a lot of leaf growth and no flower buds. But I think they may be just strengthening themselves and may do much better next season. I bought a TON of dwarf CMs from Evergreenplantnursery. They are only about $6-12 each , although a few dollars more when you factor shipping in. I got about 5 each of Midnight Magic, Moonlight Magic, Purple Magic, and Cherry Dazzle. Also got a couple Tontos (one from Evergreen, one from Al's, and a couple of Pink Velours at Al's.) These are shorter varieties and I live in a place where the people above me have nice views so it is uncool to plant tall trees. My strategy on these is: I planted these in large containers. I will put them in the garage in the dormant season where hopefully they won't see temperatures below 25F or so. Then I will take them outside during the growing season. After about 3 years hopefully they will have trunks and branches that are big enough to withstand the winter cold waves (down to around 10F in this area) without too much dieback. The Midnight Magics from Soonerplantfarm I planted died all the way to the ground, but they have generated lots of growth this summer. My dilemma now is whether to transplant them into pots to put in the garage in the winter, or see how they do if I keep them outside. They might just die back every winter and regrow each summer, which would make them perennials. But they have only grown leaves, not flower buds, so if I want them to flower I may need to grow them inside for a few winters to get them bigger before planting them outside for good. Not much data yet but I have about 25 crape myrtles in pots and about 20 in the yard so I should get a lot of data within 2-3 years, which I will report. The good thing is even if they dont' flower much, they still have the attractive trunks and fall foliage.

Janet, I think the possumhaws would grow easily from transplanted suckers. They do sucker a lot but I've never tried to dig a sucker and move it. If the sucker is coming up some distance from the mother plant, I just dig the sucker, sever it from the root of the mother plant, and toss it on the compost pile. Don't get me wrong because I do love the possumhaws and appreciate their use as a food for wildlife, but I don't want more of them than we already have. Or, if the sucker is coming up right on the main trunk, I prune it off while it is small. Some of mine sucker a lot, and others don't. Mine produce berries just fine no matter what their sun exposure happens to be but the amount varies with the sun exposure. One of the clumps of possumhaws that produces the largest loads of berries grows to the east of a very large pecan tree so it only gets full sun early in the morning and is in dappled shade the rest of the day. Even those growing in the woods produce decent amounts of berries though. Most produce very red berries that eventually fade to a more orangeish-red in the winter but a couple produce berries that are an orangey-red from the start. The birds generally don't eat the berries until late winter as their flavor is very astringent and they are not 'preferred' food, but the birds do eat them after they've eaten up everything they like more. None of the plants you listed are growing on our property but some of them may grow elsewhere in southern OK where the soil is sandy and drains better than our clay. We do have various native solanums that closely resemble purple groundcherry, but I don't think I have seen purple ground cherry here. We do have Carolina Horsenettle (aka Virginia Ground Cherry) and two that I believe are Torry's Nightshade and Silverleaf Nightshade. They usually bloom in midsummer and then form the fruit that look sort of like small, immature tomatoes that never get very large or sort of like the seedpods that form on potato plants. The horsenettle and nightshades are very, very drought-tolerant. This summer, when we were out at wildfires all over the county, often the nightshades were just about the only plants still green in July and August whether they were growing in the sandier soils in western and southern portions of the county, or clay in other areas, or rocky ridges in more northernmost parts of the county. They seem able to adapt to just about any soil type. I believe southern Oklahoma shares many native plants that also are found in Texas, but it varies a lot just as our soil types vary a lot. Having mostly dense, red clay, I generally see native plants that are clay-tolerant and are typical of what you'd find in the blackland prairies in north central Texas. This summer we were out time and again at fires in very sandy soil in parts of the county that have a lot of sand and I saw plants there that I'd never seen here before. Some of them were so new to me that I didn't know what I was seeing, while I recognized others even though I didn't know that they grew here. Love County is right in the middle of southern OK with I-35 cutting it right in half, and the further west you go in our county, the more you see native plants that resemble what you see in western north Texas or even west Texas. Conversely, the further east you go, the more you see the types of plants more typical of northeastern Texas. It is a fascinating study in the difference that soil and rainfall make even in a fairly small area. Our rainfall in our county varies a lot, with the more western portions of the county often getting 4 to 6" less rainfall per year than the more eastern portions, and the plants that do best in that drier sand are often different from those that do best in more eastern parts of the county.