Sorry for the delay. Finally stopped raining. Here's the one in the pot - I hard prune it once a year to try to keep it like a bonsai (which is how my mother raised it - I try to maintain her original shape). It's about 15 years old now: Here's a full size 20 year old - just like the one in the front yard. Was pruned last week (just to take out limbs that were rubbing together - etc.). It's a little thin on the left side because raccoons climb on it - and then try to jump onto the bird feeder (and they break some limbs - not theirs - the ones on the trees): Here's a volunteer from our purple-ish trees that decided to grow in an inconvenient place for a tall tree. Looks nice in bloom. I prune it back pretty hard each year to keep it small: I love the purple-ish color of the one you like (I have 3 of them - one of the few things in the original landscape I liked and kept). I tried to match it for a while (I wanted a 4th) - and never did find one (thought I had - but the 4th turned out more pink than purple - still - it had such a nice trunk structure I couldn't bring myself to dig it up and toss it). Robyn

'Catawba' is not usually bushy. It's an upright cultivar. It can be kept more upright by limiting the number of trunks, or, encouraged to be more bushy by cutting out dominant trunks and allowing multiple trunks to arise. There are many other crape cultivars that are lavender/purple and small. Examples would include 'Dwarf Royalty' (royal-purple, dwarf, 4'-8'), 'Petite Orchid' (orchid, dwarf-upright, 4'-6'), and 'Petite Plum' (plum-purple, dwarf-upright, 4'-6'). The biggest obstacle I can see with growing a crape in a pot (assuming you replant it, as you said you were willing to do) is possible hardiness issues. In your area (7b/8a) most crapes will do fine in-ground, but you might loose some in a cold winter. As I'm sure you know, trees' and shrubs' roots are not nearly as hardy as their above ground parts. You may be OK (especially considering the heat your patio might give off), but I wouldn't bet either way.

Most of the more established Crape Myrtles in our neighborhood (around Green Lake) bloomed beautifully during our long summer last year, but very few of them bloomed this year since it was so cool. Here's a good site on Crape Myrtles with information on bloom times: Auburn University College of Agriculture Common Crape Myrtle page. I would look for one with an early bloom time. Our neighbors have Natchez on the east side of their house--so not scorchingly hot, but it still blooms nicely as long as we have a few months of real summer.

Yay! I'm sure you were having doubts since it's so late. Hope it will go ahead and bloom this year so we can see what color it is. They're not slow growers. I was beginning to wonder about my potted crape myrtles on the patio. The larger crape myrtles in the ground have had growth for awhile but growth is just starting on one of my potted ones. I noticed it yesterday. There's another one on my patio that still looks dead, but it needs to be moved out into the sun. It's in an old wooden barrel and I'm afraid it will fall apart if I try to move it. I want to wait until it dries out so it won't be so heavy at least.