Hi, Matt. Very touching story. Thanksd for bringing it here. I think sometimes we are chided in the kindest way, don't you? I never heard of the fragrant herbs being brought in August, but a wonderful custom, for sure.

Check out 'Centenial' for a moderate sized dark pink. It's supposed to be one of the most prolific bloomers. I really like 'Burgandy Cotton' for a white. Mine is still young so I can't say for sure, but it's supposed to stay a moderate sized. I do enjoy my three white 'Acomas'. They have a beautiful almost oriental look to them with their thick spreading foliage and smooth bark. At maturity they topped out at about 14-15 ft. I think. I'll have to measure them in the morning to be sure. I love the purple color of Catabwa and have a young one. A neighbor grows it and it matured at about 15 ft. I think a lot of them grow taller than they say. I bought some so called miniature ones that grew to 12 ft tall in a few years.

Cearbhaill, taking out the grass is definitely an option if I can't figure this out by the end of next year. I have other trees (albeit non flowering) that exist on our property, in or around the lawn which are probably being negatively influenced the same way as the crape myrtle. So it's in my best interest to solve this issue. What do you mean by is the root flat above ground? As I follow the truck down to the ground there is a thin half inch layer of soil (which is covered by mulch) that exists above the major root system that developed off the trunk. So the roots aren't exposed, but yet aren't too deep. I've see crape myrtles in the area where you can see the base roots fully exposed in a 3 foot diameter circle around the truck before the lawn begins, and those trees thrive. And I have also seen the opposite. How could the mounding affect this situation (besides a possible water retention issue which doesn't exist in this case). Thanks for the feedback.

I hope cutting them back and using the horticultural oil saves them, Sammy, so you don't have to give them up. In my county, where the soil and water generally are pretty alkaline, Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) just does not grow well, if it even grows at all. They generally prefer moist, acidic, rich soil high in organic matter in part shade, and have to be watered a lot in the summer---so nothing about my area is right for them. They also have trouble with aphids, scale and borers, and several diseases plague them. Consequently, I never see them here and don't know anyone who has one in our area. I think they are very beautiful when grown in the right conditions, at least during their bloom period, but they require a lot of care. Far to our east in McCurtain County, they do pretty well in the Broken Bow area so I know there's places in OK where they can thrive. We have a native dogwood here that tolerates our alkaline soil and water. It is called Roughleaf Dogwood (Cornus drummondi). It is an understory tree that really is more of a shrub than a tree, and it suckers persistently and forms groves. Ours only get maybe 10' tall, max, and grow aggressively. They are common along rural fencelines where they mix in with the native plums and other trees that birds like to plant. Once you have them, you never can get rid of them. They have white flowers followed by white berries, and while I love them while they are in bloom, and I think the white berries look nice.....the foliage of the trees always has various fungal type spotting and stuff. They look really pretty from a distance, and then when you get up close and see the diseased foliage, that prettiness fades. I'd never plant one in our landscape on purpose, but we inherited some that were on the property when we moved here and our attempts to cut them down failed, as it only seemed to encourage them to come back strong and with lots of suckering and new trees. So, they live on undereath our pecan trees and I just ignore them. I planted four o'clocks around them and the four o'clocks are so pretty while in bloom that it makes up for the foliage on the roughleaf dogwoods looking so bad all the time. Since they're in the shade of the pecan tree, the four o'clocks stretch for light and get leggy and often attain 5-6' in height in the summer, so they help hide a lot of the dogwood foliage. If you're looking for a low-maintenance tree, I'm not sure flowering dogwood fits the bill. Perhaps they will do a lot better there if you've got the kind of soil they need. I think they do best in a soil pH around 5.5 or so. Mine runs 8.2, so you can see why we cannot give flowering dogwood trees the conditions they need here. Variety selection is important too because flowering dogwoods come in different sizes, and many of them easily get 25-30' tall. I know there are some cultivars that stay significantly shorter.