Keith and Wilson are hard at work at the Nursery this particular morning, digging and prepping some LARGE maples and hollies for delivery to a customer's property.
Meanwhile, our crape myrtles have sensed the nearness of Fall, and are beginning to shed their blooms so they can turn their attention to their second act: the changing of the leaves.
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| Muskogee Crape Myrtle |
As famous as crapes are for their colored blooms, they are not one-note wonders; crapes are among that group of landscape plantings that can do 2 or 3 things for a landscape plan. After the summer blooms, they can provide striking leaf colors in the Fall, rivaling the iconic maples. And after the leaves fall away they reveal an equally striking bark or trunk pattern in the Winter.
These Biloxi crapes, for instance, will show off orange red leaves this Fall, and an exfoliating cinnamon trunk in colder times.
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| Biloxi Crape Myrtle |
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| Biloxi Crape Myrtle exfoliating bark |
After Winter the crapes will return to their forte of blooms in the Spring and throughout the Summer, and so the cycle continues.
Right now, however, our crapes are in the midst of the Summer to Fall cycle, and so betray nothing special yet. The blooms are diminished but still present; the leaves yet to turn.
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| Potomac Crape Myrtle |
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| Red Rocket Crape Myrtle |
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| Tonto Crape Myrtle |
