Re: Lagerstroemia

**M* W* <m*@earthlink.net>**

To put it mildly, the Seattle area does not see 90 days of nighttime  
temperatures in the 70s - ever.  Yet, crape myrtles are being planted  
more and more often.  Years ago, the Center for Urban Horticulture  
participated in a trial from the National Arboretum, and those plants  
still thrive in a parking lot.  For a long time, we told everyone to  
choose only the shrubby kind, that the trees were too dicey, but now  
trees are being planted as street trees - and blooming.  They are  
beautiful plants in all seasons.  We will never rival the gorgeous  
specimens in the Southeast (or California), but we can still enjoy them.

Marty Wingate
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, NW Gardens, www.seattlepi.com
Author:
The Bellevue Botanical Garden: Celebrating the First 15 Years (2007)
The Big Book of Northwest Perennials
(Sasquatch Books, 2005)
Big Ideas for Northwest Small Gardens
(Sasquatch Books, 2003)

martywingate.com

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