If the reason you are asking this question is that Crape Myrtles get too large for your garden, you should investigate some of the dwarf varieties. They were introduced at the New Orleans World's Fair in the eighties, and I would think they would be fairly readily available. They are the perfect size for hanging pots, planters, or borders. As to your question, the answer is yes, you can cut crapes to the ground and they'll come on out and bloom each year (although at a hundred different angles). My best guess, based on what I see in our area is they would make 3 to 4 feet tall in one growing season. This, of course, depends on how long your season is and how hot it gets. I would think mid to back of the border would be the place for them grown this way. For this idea of yours to be at its best, I would encourage you to look for the smaller sized cultivars, if not the dwarfs. It really is a good idea. Grown this way, crape myrtles could serve the same purpose as butterfly bushes, I would think. But do know that when crape myrtles bloom heavily, they need to have the seed pods cut off in order to continue to bloom, so they would be nearly as much work as buddleias.

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.

A few Taxus baccata mail-order sources: Bloom River (excellent G.WD. rating) - two cultivars Broken Arrow Nursery (excellent G.WD. rating) - one cultivar Cloud Mountain Farm & Nursery (excellent G.WD. rating) - multiple cultivars Fairweather Gardens (pretty good G.WD. rating) - one cultivar ForestFarm (very good G.WD. rating) - species and one cultivar Girard Nurseries (pretty good G.WD. rating) - one cultivar Gossler Farms Nursery (so-so G.WD. rating) - one cultivar Oikos Tree Crops (excellent G.WD. rating) - species RareFind Nursery (excellent G.WD. rating) - one cultivar Secret Garden Growers (very good G.WD. rating) - one cultivar Dynamite crApe myrtle...you might have better luck spelling it with an 'a'; most professionals spell it that way and some sites may not show results for the alternate spelling. There are almost an infinite number of sources for this plant.

Here's the deal. In Zones 7+ (assuming a normal year), there will be minimal die back of wood over the winter. Therefore (depending on the variety), some will wanna be TREES. (Yes, you could still prune back to maintain it as a shrub.) In Zone 6b, there will be some die back of the woody tissue due to cold (obviously, depending on factors such as cold duration). In colder zone 6's (6A), the cold damage may be considerable, but doubt that it would be killed to ground level. If it does get cut to ground level, that will obviously delay its blooms for the season. You also should go with one of the cultivars known for hardiness. There is a line of hybrid Crepe (they were all bred for cold hardiness and tolerance to high summer humidity). You can identify them because they were each names after a particular Native American tribe. Chances are, that if you CAN grow them in an areas, they WILL be sold in local nurseries and big box stores. If not, you can always experiment. I have had good luck over the years with the following Crepes: ZUNI (magenta color), DWARF HOPI (very vigorous, not really that 'dwarf' with a pleasant pink color), and Catawba (purple flowers). 'Dynamite' (red red flowers) has a great color but don't think it as cold hardy (may not be a hybrid..., certainly not one from the Native American tribe series). You can always grow them in containers where winters are harder. They do well in containers. They are relatively care free plants, AND they are quite deer resistant.