Roses, what else! Nothing is more beautiful than a rose!
Ha, I got that in before anyone else had a chance to be logical.

Have you started getting more crape myrtles? Whenever I disrupt mine, they seem to send off shoots, and I get more.

I am probably not going to be giving you a sensible answer here, but how are you going to trim your crape myrtle? Are you going to limb it up? Or will you let all the lower limbs remain and grow it as a bush?

To my eye a crape myrtle goes with everything. I grow many roses, and I don't seem to get into trouble with color like I do tones or hues (I don't know the difference.) Something loud and garish against something subtle can be a problem unless you repeat correctly. But back to your crape myrtle. I have about 10, not counting the new ones that are popping up. I have about 240 roses. They do truly go together, but many roses need care. If you are interested in roses, you might look at The Fairy or Marie Pavie. They are older and need less care.

There are so many very beautiful flowers like columbines, larkspurs,hydrangeas, hibiscus. I guess I cannot help too much since I am not sure what you like.

Sammy

Tell us what you are looking for.

Do you want some sort of dwarf evergreen shrub that will just sit there and look good year round?

Do you want something that has complementary or contrasting blooms?

Are you more interested in a ground cover for the area immediately under the crape myrtle?

Or, do you want something that blooms--either an annual or perennial???

Maybe you'd like one of the shorter ornamental grasses?

If you can tell us what look you are going for, we can suggest appropriate plants I am sure.

Oh, tell us what kind of soil is there too...clay, sand, loam, etc.

Dawn

I guess it would help to give more info, sorry all. I'm thinking about trimmng myrtle about 5 foot high each spring. I like the way they look trimmed that way.

Perrenials, mainly. Something I can plant and not fuss with. All sun. I'm not a fan of evergreen trees/bushes.

Mostly clay soil, I amended it somewhat w/peat, wood chips, grass and leaves prior to throwing myrtle into it.

Sammy, nothing personal, but my thought about roses is that the only good one is a dead one. I mowed lawns all over town when I was a kid, and was forever scratching my arms and legs on the thorns. To top it off, I bought roses for my wife once in the years we've been together. She threw them away after 24 hours--she's allergic to them!Unless there is a thornless one that takes very little care, no roses.

I've thought about colored grasses, but don't know if they will stay put or try to take over.

I just planted two Dynamite crepe myrtles (cherry red) this weekend with yellow daylillys underneath. I think they were Stella's. Between the two crepes I have three clumps of Japanese Silver Grass. I am going to plant blue plumbago around the grass.
Rodney

I like the combination of daylilies and daffodils, of course, because they make good ground cover as well as produce flowers through two seasons. Russian Sage and purple cone flower are good, too.

Rodney, my friend Ralph has been growing the red crepe myrtles for about 3 years now. His are absolutely gorgeous. He plants his lilium formosanum around them. Watch the Japanese Silver Grass. Sometimes it wants to revert to green and you just need to clip those leaves out.

I've seen cannas and crepe myrtles together. Of course, if the crepe myrtles are small you might want to wait awhile, or get the dwarf cannas.

Susan

Susan,
Thanks for the heads up on the Japanese Silver Grass. I'm new to the ornamental grasses. I am so anxious for mine to mature and fill out. I'm on a limited budget so I had to buy the one gallon containers. It may be a few years before I get any height out of them but that's okay...that's part of the fun of gardening!
Rodney