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Need Help Choosing Hardy Crape Myrtle

greenthumbzdude

13 years ago

Hi,

My grandmother told me a little while ago that she really wants a crape myrtle. Next spring I would like to get her one for her birthday. The problem is that she lives in zone 5/6 and is in the open with no protection. I been looking at all the red cultivars and the hardiest ones are like zone 6 with protection. Does anyone know of a red cultivar that is tree form in atleast zone 5 or hardier. If not could you please suggest a substitue for this tree.

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Comments (5)

brandon7 TN_zone7
13 years ago
Where does she live (city & state)? If she's really in zone 5, it's going to be pretty dicey for most cultivars (especially in an exposed area). Have you checked with nurseries in her area to see if they've had any experience with crapes surviving and doing well in the area? Any chance of talking her into a lilac?
greenthumbzdude
Original Author
13 years ago
She lives at the base of the Pocono mountains several miles north of Allentown, Pennsylvania. I have not seen any crape myrtles around at the nurseries there and haven't seen any in peopls yards either. She already has a lilac.
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He (Logan) doesn't get it. Now I'm starting to feel sorry for him. Yes, Logan. I have propagated hardwood cuttings...many thousands of them. I had a busy wholesale nursery for several years; my employees and I spent every WINTER propagating a wide variety of shrubs, vines, groundcovers, and trees. It's not a flexibility issue at all. We also did softwood and semi hardwood propagation at the appropriate times of year. The timing of asexual propagation is mostly dependent upon the needs of the plant. Some simply do best when cuttings are taken at a particular time of year. Logan, I urge you to invest in yourself by seeking some formal education, finding a job at a successful nursery, asking for recommendations on good books, even searching the internet for educational resources.
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viburnumvalley
13 years ago
If red flowers are the determining issue - you ought to hunt up an Aesculus pavia (Red Buckeye) and be done with it.

If having a Crape Myrtle is the issue, and flower color is not, then you could expect reasonable success with Lagerstroemia 'Sarah's Favorite'. This is a white flowered form which has exhibited exemplary performance here in central KY for the past 18 years.

'Hopi' is the next most hardy Crape Myrtle I know and grow. It is a solid pink version out of the US National Arboretum program (as is 'Sarah's Favorite'), a good strong grower that has put up with the relatively tough winter conditions found here.
Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
13 years ago
Box stores here will sell 'Dynamite' like it is zone 6 hardy so beware. I'm just waiting for the right winter to come and kill mine off. It is the last thing to get its leaves in the spring and experiences some dieback every year.
brandon7 TN_zone7
13 years ago
I'd actually be pretty comfortable with Dynamite in most zone 6 areas, but borderline 5/6 is probably just a little too much.

Having a tree-form, red-flowering, AND zone 5/6 hardiness may be just asking too much (at least for any cultivar I can think of). There are other tree-form cultivars with other flower colors that might make it, and, there are even low-growing reddish cultivars ('Red Filli' is actually pretty red, even though it is sometimes mistakenly shown as more pink or is sometimes confused with 'Coral Filli') that would make it in a zone 5/6 setting.

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