If you can get, and keep, the crepe myrtle to a single trunk, it won't be as wide as a multi-trunked tree. The flowering branches do extend pretty far out, and can hang down/droop gracefully as the blooms open, possibly as wide as tall, but I haven't measured any big ones that were single trunk. That's why I suggested planting further from the sidewalk, so it doesn't block the walk. You could trim any branches that overhung the walkway back to the trunk, although the CM as a whole might look lop-sided. I am not sure you WANT to prune a 20 foot tree to keep it lower, unless you have access to a cherry picker, as it's rather hard to be safe that high up and reaching to prune? (if you are an aerialist, line-man, or professional arborist, then never mind) And CM's don't look good pruned shorter, IMO. Look up "crepe murder" on this forum or Google for it, and find photos of each, and you can see the differences in "murdered" treees and trees left to grow naturally. Trimming for shape is one thing, trimming for height is much harder to do and keep the tree looking natural. Try to find a CM cultivar that won't get taller than you want the ultimate height to be, and be aware that it will take some years for it to grow to that height. While I love lamb's ears, unless you get a non-flowering variety, be aware that it might not be the best for next to a public walkway. The bumble bees LOVE the flowers, and while you do have to work pretty hard to get a bumble bee to sting, it might upset the neighbors and passers-by to hear and see them buzzing happily. Not many people are aware of the differences between bb's and honey bees, and can react badly to any buzzing, bee-like insect.

My goodness, it was very interesting to look back and see what's here and what's now gone. Yesterday I dug out the overgrown spiderworts and replaced them with echinaceas. I always have loads of echinaceas reseeding so they're a big fill in when I'm ripping out. The bed with the yuccas is full of some weeds--it must get a major redo this fall. For the most part it all looks the same except things have filled in and gotten bigger. I probably have two dozen crepe myrtles here, all grown from seed I traded for on the forums. I took seeds from all around the country and mixed them together. The seeds were WS (probably in late January) and they germinated well in mid spring. The seedlings were kept in a holding be their first year--I was surprise to see some lavender blooms. The second year they were transferred to a back fence border where they were another year, after that I started moving them about the garden. I now have two crepe myrtle hedges and some extras still in the back fence border. Crepe Myrtles have a varied hardiness, usually to zone seven but some species can do zone six quite well. If you want to increase your crepe myrtles then trade for seeds from around the country and WS them all together. After a couple of years you will know which of them are hardy for your garden. It's three years time between sowing and seeing a blooming and prunable hedge from your crepe myrtle seeds--for me it was a grand experiment to see if I could succesfully germinate them with WS here in zone seven; I am absolutely delighted with my crepes. They're just about to start blooming too so that's really nice to see. T Here is a link that might be useful: Crepe Myrtle Seeds (nice hardiness data)

That's what crape myrtles do Scanmike, the roots live a long time and will continually send up shoots to reestablish growth above ground. After 5 years I've finally gotten down to nil most of the shoots coming up here from the numerous crapes the previous owner had planted (too close to fence, right next to house, etc.) and we removed. Now that I've gotten those under control, I put in a pink velour in a good location. lol Unless you want several trunks on/around your tree. snip off the shoots as they come up.

I don't know rhizo. VPI seems to spell it as "crape myrtle" in most of it's posts on the web. My search turned up three times more VPI/crape myrtle links than VPI/crapemyrtle links. Here's just the first few examples: http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-701/426-701.html http://www.hort.vt.edu/mastergardener/countyfaqstats.htm http://www.ext.vt.edu/departments/envirohort/monthlytips/november/notenovt.html http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/plantdiseasefs/450-616/450-616.html Then I found a bunch of US National Arboretum documents with "crape myrtle". A few had both "crapemyrtle" and "crape myrtle" in the same document! Their homepage ( http://www.usna.usda.gov/ ) uses "crape myrtle". And, I've never noticed, but Dirr doesn't seem to be able to make his mind up either, if the rule he's using is like the one to which you allude. He uses firstname-secondname most commonly, but also uses firstnamesecondname and firstname secondname frequently also. Just a very few examples of the firstname secondname scheme in his writings: Indian Cherry is not a Prunus Oregon Cedar is not a Cedrus Stinking Cedar is not a Cedrus Mountain Holly is not a Ilex Poison Ivy is not a Hedera Tulip Magnolia is not a Magnolia and the list could go on and on. Hortus III does use "crape myrtle". I totally agree with you that "it is a common name, after all and subject to all kinds of variations," but some of us have to have something to talk about in our spare time when we are procrastinating doing the things we should be doing. (-: