My Corner Online
Lagerstroemia indica x fauriei "Pocomoke' | Pocomoke Crapemyrtle | Crape Myrtle
2017, August 24 - transplanted to the end of the new pergola
2023- Next year I am going to get better and marking the first time something blooms!
Lagerstroemia indica x fauriei "Pocomoke' | Pocomoke Crapemyrtle | Crape Myrtle
(Pronounced lah-ger-STROH-mee-uh) (named after Swedish merchant Magnus von Lagerström)
(Pronounced In-dih-kah) (means connected to India)
(Pronounced (FAR-ee-eye) (Named for a 19th century French missionary and botanist L'Abbé Urbain Jean Faurie)
The Family is Lythraceae (common name is Loosestrife) (Pronounced Lie-THRAY-see-eye)
The common name of "crape" is for the crepe-papery flowers and the common name of "myrtle" is for the myrtle-like (Myrtus communis) features of the bark and evergreen-like foliage. I think of crepe paper as wrinkly, crinkly, and see-through. Myrtle makes me think of a beach in Florida or a lady from the 1950's with a big loud personality!
The fauriei species is more cold hardy and this characteristic was transferred to L. indica × L. faurei cultivars. These are also cultivated to be disease resistant. It is also a dwarf variety, although mine seems to keep getting taller and taller! I read it is only 2 to 3 feet tall, but mine is 6 1/2 feet tall and that is after I cut it back during the dormant months. I read that it gets to a maximum of 5 feet. I wonder if I should let mine go to test that theory. The ones I see online are more like a low-growing shrub and mine is more like a tree.
I have to laugh at the term "Crape Murderer" because sometimes I wonder if I am guilty. Being deciduous, it loses its leaves in the Autumn, so I treat it like a rose and prune it when it is dormant once the cold weather reaches our area. I generally prune roses in January or February and often do the Crape Myrtle at the same time.
There are 15 hybrid cultivars of L. indica × L. faurei by the U.S. National Arboretum (this one released in 1998) that were given names of Native American tribes. The Pocomoke is for the Pocomoke Indian Nation.
Although it sometimes seems as I wait forever for my Crape Myrtle to grow leaves and I often think it has died over the winter, this is actually a good characteristic because the bush blooms late in the Summer when there are not many other things blooming.
The below photos were taken July 26, 2023, while filming the above video.
I learned that female Tiger Bee Flies lay eggs in Carpenter Bees’ unprotected nest tunnels still containing carpenter bees, so there must be carpenter bees nearby the back of my yard and I am hoping it is not in the pergola. I thought I saw them coming over the fence. We do have Carpenter Bees around as we have fought them off the wood of the patio, so that all made sense to me. Tiger Bee Fly larvae feed on the Carpenter Bees larvae! So I guess that is a good thing, not that we have carpenter bees, but that there is a predator to them.
The below photos were taken in 2022.
This was the year I put a tarp we were no longer using to cover our chairs over the pergola and I loved it! It gave us shade and I had sewn some tassles on it so it was lovely too. It only lasted one year though and I cut the tassle off and repurposed them.
We had in the initial years used this tall table which was perfect for a laptop or book reading, but the space was too small and we found ourselves avoiding walking around the table to sit down, so in 2023 we moved things around.
The below photos were in 2021.
The below photos were taken in 2020.
You see I moved the table to the side and I actually liked it there except we had no table nearby to set a drink down. You can see the grape vine that we had for many years. I liked it except the birds always ate the grapes and by 2022 it had grown too much and was competing with the Wisteria at the top, so we took it out.
You can see the Wisteria growing to the right of this photo.
The below photos were taken in 2019.
You can see many vining plants that we played with but in the end we found the American Wisteria on the back left was all we needed so they all slowely came out except the one. The other Wisteria were Asian and all those vines were just too much!
The below photos were taken in 2018.
We had bought a 100-year old piece of barnwood at an antique store and I used it behind the Crape Mrytle to block the view to the neighbor's yard. This was when we still had the chain link fence.
It seemed to do well!
The below photos were taken in 2017.
In 2017 the Crape Myrtle on the right (Holly on the left) was still in the raised bed and it was still smaller. It must have been 2017 when we dug up the Crape Myrtal and moved it as an anchor to the pergola.
This was the year I learned that Crape Myrtle's bud out their leaves really late in the Spring. I remember being excited that it was not dead and I took these photos.
The below photo was taken in 2016 and I used it to make a word graphic which is probably on another website page here somewhere.
The below photo was taken in 2015. It is still in the raised bed and my neighbor's ugly tree that eventually fell down and killed our tree is in the background.
The below photos were taken in 2014.
The below photos were taken in 2012. I think this was the year after the plant was first planted.
