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Can anyone make any good suggestions on some "southern" crapes? I am on the border of zone 6b/7a (more on 7a, but near 6b).
I bought a crape a couple of years ago, but turns out that it is the tree type (I am told anyway) and it only has one trunk out of the ground and I am wanting the type that you see a lot of in the southern USA with the multiple trunks coming out of the ground. I am planning on visiting some local greenhouses tomorrow. I went to one of our local Lowes where I purchased my other one a few years ago and they didn't have any this year, despite the website showing otherwise.
I have both tree types in the backyard and the other in front. I've wondered about the difference in growth myself. Never bothered to look it up. Hope someone has the answers.
Anything with an "American Indian" name all have multiple trucks, although some are tall trees. The American Indian series was also bred to be more disease resistant and tolerant frost. "Tonto" is shorter and more like a bush and there are several others that even more bush like. Camanche, I think, is a bush. They were all bred by the National Botanic Gardens and if you look up their website you can find all sorts of info and photos.
I am in zone 7, and I FINALLY got a crape myrtle. There is a website that gives you the height, disease resistance, color, fall color and growth habit: Crape Myrtle Varieties
I got a Sioux. It says upright, and it grows with multiple trunks from the bottom, so perhaps you can select an "upright" variety.
I have 2 crepe myrtles, one is Dynamites (red flower) and the other is Miami (pink flower). Both are multi-trunk variety. They are wonderful to see when they bloom.
The link above provided by KinkyToes is a good one. You can use it as a guide & order what you want from your local nursery.
Whatever you do don't be guilty of the extreme pruning called Crepe Myrtle Murder. If you plant the right variety in the right place this is not needed. Not healthy for the plant making weak new growth and it looks so bad.
I have Natchez and Muskogee which are both large tree types, and I also have 'Yuma' which is more of a large shrub. I have some dwarf bushy purple ones that I don't know the name of because I propagated them from my grandmother's plants.
From my experience they'll all be multi-trunked unless they're pruned to a single stem.
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