Different variant of Crape Myrle from seed

good source thanks

Try spellcheck Dave.

Wildcat, I just came across this thread and wondered where you got your seed. I got some a couple of years ago and only planted a couple. I still have one I think. It is shoved in amongst other things. I have never seen a crape myrtle but have seen pictures of them being grown in Georgia and I thought they were rather more like mini trees. Mine is nothing like that. I don't think. I will have to look at it. Mine has bloomed some. Small pink and lavender blossoms like puffs.

Some crape myrtles are smaller and more shrublike, others are larger and more treelike--depends on the cultivar and how it's pruned. I'm not sure yours is a crape though...I think they would have trouble with zone 5 winters, and small pink puff blooms doesn't sound right either. If you post a picture of yours in the ID forum someone will be able to tell you what you have.

No, mine is only outside, in a container, for the summer. It was from seed from a reputable seedman.

Jnette I use seeds from my own crapes. The seed came from 6 different varieties crapes from who are 6 feet to 20+ feet tall, white to dark purple. 5 of the crapes came from nurseries that I aquired 20+ years ago, 1 is a 15 YO volunteer that came up in a shasta daisy bed. Daisies died from lack of rain, crape lived. All grow very close to one another, too close. I don't have a clue who the daddies are. I didn't keep track of which crape the produced the seed, so I have no idea who the mothers are either. Nature at work with an assist from me, sort of I suppose. I am an accidental crape breeder. LOL.

Jeanette: Is tha crape you have one you got from me? Most crepes will not survive north of zone 6b and at that they can get frozen to the ground. I know I was sick when I spoted my mother plant. It was perfect. south of here they have them like mini trees. 20 to 25 ft mini trees. some are single stem others are multi.
I know the little ones would make a great bonsai.
I know I want to buy one of the horizontal crepes WildcatThicket has. which he is aware of I think. i know I have bugged him too much about it so I hope I have not driven him crazy by now.
Dave

No Dave, I just got the seed from a vendor and I have had it in a pot. Thought it was gone last fall, but found it again amongst the other things. I don't have it outside so that is why it hasn't winter killed.

Dave here is a photo of my 6 inch by 3 foot CM. No blooms but does have a few buds. I had failed to fertilize the big guy until about a week ago. That is a yard stick laying across the CM.

Hi I love the form on that baby. have you been propagating it?
Jeanette I kind of thought you might have brought it in. how big has he gottin?

This one YO is blooming ok.

I saw a plant for sale at Lowes with the exact same form as the plants in this post. It was called a dwarf variety.

I have 10 new 2 week old cuttings that are growing a little.

Here is one of last year's that was just a near death stick early this spring. No blooms yet but lots of new growth

echinaceamaniac
It is a drawf for sure. It is from seeds from a standard size white CM, I think. I have more drawfs from my seeds but I didn't have any drawfs until now. CMs are just like people, you never know how short or tall or what eye color they may end up with.

This message was edited Jul 16, 2010 5:05 PM

Not very big Dave since I don't even remember to water it let alone fertilize it. But it has bloomed. LOL, poor little thing. I will see if I have more seeds Dave and if I do I will send them to you. Maybe with this plant. I am sure it would do better with you. LOL

Dave here is a new goundhugger crape of a different color and appears to have different branching and leaves. I misidentified this one as a cutting from the first groundhugger in earlieer posts. I am now sure that I repotted this in from a year+ in its 16 oz cup in April. My fuzzy head is clearing up. Being sick and in the house for a year doesn't help you remember what you did last year. Enough whining, I am pleased I now have two. Two years of starting seeds and I got lucky twice with two different crape groundhuggers.

Another look. Pictures are terrible sorry.

Wildcat, how about posting pictures of your 6, 10, and 20 footers you said you have. I would love to see them. Really like the white one.

Hi Jnette here a poor picture of a bunch of my little guys. Plenty of white. better pictures tomorrow I hope. I need a new camera.

Jnette here is the big white one. Looks more impressive when in full bloom. It starts blooming in the last week of May every year. It is very wide, makes a lot of shade.

This a 2 year old cutting from the white, summer 08 cutting. Grows fast.

This a pink 6 footer and when I dead head it will be 6 foot again.

3 very upright 10 footers along with crispy wild flowers.

A tall pink one. I don't know the names of any my crapes except for the red rocket I have in the front. It grows so slowly I think it doesn't..

A light purple.

Wow those look like lilacs in the pictures. I had no idea they got that big. Do they have a smell?

Very pretty. Thank you for posting them.

Mine don't smell. Bees love them and butterflys like them. Even the hummingbirds sometimes take a little taste.
They are the south's version of lilacs. They can be 6 inches tall or 35 feet.

Wildcat,your crepe myrtles are wonderful,you have done well. You are inspiring me to try my hand at growing some from seeds,but can you tell me if I have to stratify the seed first?

brical1 I don't do anything special with the seeds.
I collect them in the winter and start them in my greenhouse. I put a bunch of seed in a gal pot put a gal water jug over the pot or put the pot in a plastic bag to keep the humidity high. When they sprout I pick them out and put them in 1 pint containers until I decide they are keepers and need a bigger pot.

Now would be a good time in Australia for you to start if you have seeds left on the your crapes. Some of the seedlings will bloom in about 120 days others might take a long time to bloom.

Growing crapes from seed is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get and that is the fun part for me.

Sounds great Wildcat.I appreciate it.I will definitely give them a try now and will post pics if I have any success.

Keep me posted. Have fun.

wow I am impressed that you have gotten another dwarf ground hugger. you make me want to go out and collect seeds and set up a flat to germinate. I really love my 'new orleans' it would be great to have a few different ones to add to it. keep up the great efforts
Dave

Dave do you have your New Orleans planted in the ground?

I have several crepe myrtles in my yard. All were here when I bought the house, so I don't know the cultivar names. The one near my back door (in front of a very large, great room window) has branches that arch up and then drape down in a manner that suggests a semi-weeping habit. The multi-trunk tree is shaped very much like a vase of flowers. The trunks go up at a slight angle. The branches arch upward and back down again like tall ferns drooping slightly over the edge of a vase. When loaded with blooms, the branches droop lower still. Then when it rains, the wet blooms cause the branches to droop so low as to be within a few feet of the ground. The tree is a good 20ft or more tall, but after a storm the flower loaded branches droop so low as to block the door. After a storm, the weight of those wet blooms will cause the ends of the branches to almost touch the ground at which point the tree really does look very much like my weeping willow.

Again, I don't know the name of the cultivar. The flowers are a bright fuchsia color. I have lavender crepe myrtles in the front yard. An accidental cross between the 2 colors has planted itself in the backyard. The fuchsia-lavender cross is a noticeably lighter shade of fuchsia, an obvious melding of the two colors.

I would like to see a picture, it sounds interesting. I have one that has the same traits, one grown from seed. I have twisted 4 branchs together early this spring and pruned the rest. I should have left it alone.

It's storming here right now, but I'll work on either taking a new pic or finding an existing one - soon.

Yours looks like it may have very similar attributes. The good thing about crepe myrtles is that they are incredibly forgiving when it comes to pruning. The pruned branches will likely grow back if you prefer it that way. Around here they are so impossible to kill that crepe-mangling is the accepted form of pruning for large trees. Every fall my gardener whacks mine off at about 5ft and they are all back up in the 20 to 30 ft range in early spring and loaded with blooms.

I first got my New orleans crepe myrtle in 2001 planted it in the landscape at our condo. we decided to sell the condo so I dug him and a few choice specimines and potted them up. they ahve been in pots ever sense. I did get some damge on my specimine. I lost a good part of the top. it looked just like a baby version od an oak tree out in the plains all by itself and grand with a canopy. now the specimine was about 10" tall and 11" around. I have it in a short 10" mum pot. They make nice bonsai containers.
I will post a few pics and have to get a new pic of the stock plant. I left it alone to grow out so I can see what I have left to work from. I do know the bark has started to peal and show different colors just like the large trees will do.

view 2

here it is with a 12" ruler to show size

here is a view of the bark pealing