Best gardening steps

If you plan ahead a bit when you buy crape myrtle, you can be successful with one of the prettiest additions to your garden you can make. These shrubs or small trees with charming crinkled flowers come in many varieties, sizes, and colors to fit southern and mid-Atlantic zones and any landscaping need.

The common name of this non-native (to America) plant comes from the crinkly appearance of the flower petals. They resemble the delicate, fragile fabric called crepe, but are very long-lasting in the garden. Their lovely blooms will bring a show of color all summer long. You may already have noticed them in your neighborhood and been intimidated by their beauty, but these are not difficult shrubs to grow.

You should know your planting zone. This will be a numerical designation given to different areas of the country to help gardeners know how hardy plants need to be to thrive in their area. It used to be that crepe myrtles were limited to zones 4 or farther south, but now zone 6 is full of them. The less-hardy varieties come from warmer countries like India and Southeast Asia, while the more cold-tolerant ones are of Chinese or Korean origin.

In addition to enhanced hardiness, the plants now come in many sizes. The Japanese developed crepe myrtles that grow into thirty-foot trees, while plant geneticists have brought dwarf shrubs into the marketplace in recent years. You can even have a lovely hedge now.

In addition to being gorgeous, these shrubs are easy to care for. Pruning helps them produce more of their colorful blooms, and their slender branches are easy to handle with hand-held shears and loppers. Gardeners can choose to have a bushy shrub or one that consists of four to six upright limbs with suckers and laterals removed. It's easy to get the precise height and shape you want with early-spring trimming.

Go online to find your planting zone and the varieties that will give the best results. Then check out things like mildew-resistance, which might be important if your area has this problem. You will find planting advice (full sun is best), pruning guides, and sources online, too. It's a good idea to get container plants grown in a nursery in your region and properly prepared to withstand temperature fluctuations.

Then it's time to visit the photo galleries to see the wide range of colors - white and all shades of pink, purple, and red. See how these shrubs can beautify any space. They look great up against a house, in the center of a circular drive, or out by the street. The blooms come on new growth, so these shrubs are easy for even novice gardeners to handle if grooming tasks are done at the right time of the year. If they are really happy, they'll have little crepe myrtles popping up around them in a few years.

Taking care when you buy crape myrtle plants will mean years of beautiful color for your garden. These rewarding plants are good investments.