And a great shot of my dog
Full Version: Crape Myrtles
My Crape Myrtles have gone wild and are loving this SE type of heat this summer. Very profuse flowers and only about 2/3rds of the flower buds have bloomed so far. I've got two in front and many more scattered around the pool and other places in the back yard.
And a great shot of my dog
And a great shot of my dog
nice! Do they take a lot of work to keep? watering, pruning etc?? Cute dog. Our lab is black, so its hard to get a good pic.
I have them cut back in November when my guy blows out the leaves. Otherwise they are maintenance free. But I do tie the ones in front because the flowers will weigh too much on the branches after heavy rains. But these go through flower iterations. They will lose these flowers and bloom 1-2 nore times. They are flowered from mid-late July into October.
My neighbor has a few of them around his pool area - they're beautiful trees, and as you said going crazy this summer with all the heat. I noticed you have quite a diversity of plant life around your house. That's nice as it makes for great landscape/scenery.
Here's some shots of the Crapes around the pool - day and night:
I actually planted every crape I have in the back. I'm hoping the ones alraedy bloomed heavily hold in until the other two on the waterfall get more blossomed. They are also going to flower profusely and are just now emerging. As I noted before Crapes keep re-blooming into October but the first haevy bloom is the best. Down in Spring Lakke I saw some crapes that surpass the best ones I've ever seen in SC.
In this shot the two lit up trees at both ends of the photo are two massive white oaks I have and the tree in the middle is a quadruple stemmed Beech. The oaks are about 75-85' tall and the canopy on the one on the right is about 50' across. It's a stunning forrest tree. We at one time thought of cutting it but the tree service we used will only cut white oaks if absolutely necessary. They live 700+ years are extremely deep rooted and the guy told me we'd need an F-3 tornado to take it down. I have mainly Beech, white oaks, chestnutrs and walnuts on my property. In some areas on the street and on my property there are beautiful groves of beech trees with no other species interfering. But we also have some maple and a few wild dogwoods in the heavily wooded area. No sycamores or red oak, thank God. Those easily go down in storms and I'll never plant a bradford pear as they are extremely brittle and will easily get sheared in stronger winds, particularly T-storm downdrafts. Beautiful tree but it easily falls or gets damaged.
Storm - note all the stone in my backyard. It may be a cause of my temps being higher than yours. I have no lawn in my back. Despite all these trees the pool is in the sun from 9-10 to 4-5PM. By late August though it's more like 10:30-3:30 or so and I d'ont get many leaves in the pool unless we have a summer nor'easter.
I actually planted every crape I have in the back. I'm hoping the ones alraedy bloomed heavily hold in until the other two on the waterfall get more blossomed. They are also going to flower profusely and are just now emerging. As I noted before Crapes keep re-blooming into October but the first haevy bloom is the best. Down in Spring Lakke I saw some crapes that surpass the best ones I've ever seen in SC.
In this shot the two lit up trees at both ends of the photo are two massive white oaks I have and the tree in the middle is a quadruple stemmed Beech. The oaks are about 75-85' tall and the canopy on the one on the right is about 50' across. It's a stunning forrest tree. We at one time thought of cutting it but the tree service we used will only cut white oaks if absolutely necessary. They live 700+ years are extremely deep rooted and the guy told me we'd need an F-3 tornado to take it down. I have mainly Beech, white oaks, chestnutrs and walnuts on my property. In some areas on the street and on my property there are beautiful groves of beech trees with no other species interfering. But we also have some maple and a few wild dogwoods in the heavily wooded area. No sycamores or red oak, thank God. Those easily go down in storms and I'll never plant a bradford pear as they are extremely brittle and will easily get sheared in stronger winds, particularly T-storm downdrafts. Beautiful tree but it easily falls or gets damaged.
Storm - note all the stone in my backyard. It may be a cause of my temps being higher than yours. I have no lawn in my back. Despite all these trees the pool is in the sun from 9-10 to 4-5PM. By late August though it's more like 10:30-3:30 or so and I d'ont get many leaves in the pool unless we have a summer nor'easter.
ice..how quickly do the crapes grow? sometimes I get stuff from the Arbor Society, but with 6-12" starts, I hate taking years before flowers
QUOTE (jfar57 @ Aug 6 2010, 01:13 PM) 
ice..how quickly do the crapes grow? sometimes I get stuff from the Arbor Society, but with 6-12" starts, I hate taking years before flowers
They grow fast. I cut them back all the time. All the local nurseries sell them here, in fact they are on prominent display as they've gotten very popular in Monmouth. It used to be unique to own these a few years ago. But now they are popping up everywhere because of the abundant color they give for so long. In my area I've bought 4' ones for as low as $29.95. In fact several of the ones in the photos were just 3-4' container grown when I planted them in 2006/7. These trees are usually the last to bud out so if you plant one and it looks dead in late April, d'ont worry too much about it.
Ice - great photos. I like the night ones taken w/ the pool lights on. Concerning your temps, I definitely think the stone is a factor. My station is surrounded by lawn, with the closest stone near the pool area about 30-40 feet away.
Re Bradford pears - my neighbor would disagree. He planted his two pears back in 98/99, and the same ones are here, over a decade later - no damage at all. Wouldn't surprise me that the 2000s have been rather uneventful severe T-storm wise compared to prior decades, as I think you noted in another post. But we've definitely seen 50+ gusts in Monmouth over the years in association with cold air advection events or nor'easters. But no real severe 60+ gusts in some time.
I've got mostly tall red oaks in my back yard, looks like they're at least 70 years old, deeply rooted trees. But again we haven't had any extreme winds to test these different tree species.
Re Bradford pears - my neighbor would disagree. He planted his two pears back in 98/99, and the same ones are here, over a decade later - no damage at all. Wouldn't surprise me that the 2000s have been rather uneventful severe T-storm wise compared to prior decades, as I think you noted in another post. But we've definitely seen 50+ gusts in Monmouth over the years in association with cold air advection events or nor'easters. But no real severe 60+ gusts in some time.
I've got mostly tall red oaks in my back yard, looks like they're at least 70 years old, deeply rooted trees. But again we haven't had any extreme winds to test these different tree species.
QUOTE (Stormchaser @ Aug 7 2010, 12:32 AM)
Ice - great photos. I like the night ones taken w/ the pool lights on. Concerning your temps, I definitely think the stone is a factor. My station is surrounded by lawn, with the closest stone near the pool area about 30-40 feet away.
Re Bradford pears - my neighbor would disagree. He planted his two pears back in 98/99, and the same ones are here, over a decade later - no damage at all. Wouldn't surprise me that the 2000s have been rather uneventful severe T-storm wise compared to prior decades, as I think you noted in another post. But we've definitely seen 50+ gusts in Monmouth over the years in association with cold air advection events or nor'easters. But no real severe 60+ gusts in some time.
I've got mostly tall red oaks in my back yard, looks like they're at least 70 years old, deeply rooted trees. But again we haven't had any extreme winds to test these different tree species.
Re Bradford pears - my neighbor would disagree. He planted his two pears back in 98/99, and the same ones are here, over a decade later - no damage at all. Wouldn't surprise me that the 2000s have been rather uneventful severe T-storm wise compared to prior decades, as I think you noted in another post. But we've definitely seen 50+ gusts in Monmouth over the years in association with cold air advection events or nor'easters. But no real severe 60+ gusts in some time.
I've got mostly tall red oaks in my back yard, looks like they're at least 70 years old, deeply rooted trees. But again we haven't had any extreme winds to test these different tree species.
Depends on the Bradford pear type. There are two strains (aristrocrat and another name) that are a lot more wind resistant but they are less pretty trees than the main bradfords planted. One of my neighbors has the aristocrat and it's stood up to winds here for a dozen years now, so that would include the 2006 trop system we had (was it Eduoard?). There's a gas station over on Rt 79 and School road that actually has some of the nicest landscaping you'll see on a commercial property. It's right in front of the Marlboro post office. He's got a pair of Bradfords, about 30-35' tall, a stunning deodora cedar, and a beautiful horse saddled weeping norway spruce among many other plants. Both Bradfords had downed limbs that took out a quarter of each tree earlier this summer. I can't even remember a storm that would have done that. I had 2 large Bradfords on my old property in Marlboro. Both came down in storms after I sold that property. They were really beautiful trees. Close friends of ours lined their driveway with Bradfords on both sides and they've had many branches down over the years, some of which fell on their own without any real wind even present. Beautiful tree but a dangerous one in my book. It is a very shallow rooted tree with complex and tight branching and a big head. That's why wind can damage a whole section of it which is what happened at that gas station. I've also heard from some nurserymen that it's lightning prone.
Here's a few stories on the pros and cons of Bradfords:
http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles...dford_pears.htm
http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/PPDL/expert/Bra...ar_Damaged.html
http://www.scnps.org/articles/pears.html
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