TNLA WORK DAY AT WORLD COLLECTION PARK

The Texas Nursery and Landscape Association Region IV generously chose The World Collection Park for their volunteer project.  They had members from all across the Region IV area come to our park and spent around seven hours trimming, planting and doing a general cleanup.   There were approximately 50 people who showed up to lend a hand from various organizations and businesses who are members of TNLA.  We were also honored to have the Mayor George Fuller, the City Manager Paul Grimes and City Parks & Recreation Director Michael Kowski visit during the work day. Both the Mayor and City Manger addressed the volunteers to offer thanks for their efforts on behalf of our beautiful park.  

McKinney honored as ‘America’s Crape Myrtle City’

By Carolyn Skei, Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney

The Texas State House of Representatives and the McKinney City Council both recently passed resolutions honoring the City of McKinney as “America’s Crape Myrtle City.” Representative Scott Sanford (Texas District 70) and McKinney Mayor Brian Loughmiller have presented those resolutions in recent weeks to the board of directors of the Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney (CMT).

Raising the profile of the city as home to a nationally significant collection of crape myrtles is a primary aim of the Crape Myrtle Trails Foundation, a non-profit organization in McKinney’s rapidly growing part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. According to community business leader Phil Wheat, the current president of CMT’s board, the group has applied to the U.S. Patent Office for registration of the name “America’s Crape Myrtle City.”

These recent resolutions support the application and also commend the “significant contributions” of the organization in promoting McKinney as “one of the best places in the country to live.”

The state legislative resolution specifically acknowledges the work done by the Crape Myrtle Trails Foundation over the years in “making its community into a popular showcase for what is considered … the premier flowering plant of the South.”

Since 1998 the organization’s efforts have focused on extensive plantings (“Trails”) of crape myrtles throughout McKinney. In June 2011, organization members and city dignitaries officially opened McKinney’s $1.3 million World Collection Park of The Crape Myrtle Trails. This 7-acre park, located near Hwy 121 and Stacy Road in southwest McKinney, is planted with all known species and varieties of crape myrtles.

Wheat said that since 2000 nearly 22,000 crape myrtles have been planted in the community, with an especially large number in the rapidly maturing park. He told board members that U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson (3rd District, Texas) will bring a similar resolution before the U.S. House of Representatives in the early part of this year.