Crape Myrtle Varieties
When you start researching crape myrtles and shopping at nurseries you get the feeling there must be a thousand varieties. (Botanists refer to them as “cultivars.”) When we began the organization known as The Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney, we had the same feeling. We set out to figure out how many varieties there actually are and how we might find them.
Curiously, it’s only been since the second half of the 20th Century that people paid much attention to actual variety names. They’d merely go by colors: red, pink, white, lavender or purple crape myrtles (and the occasional two-toned type). The problem with that was that you had no idea of the plant’s other features: height, width, fall color, pest resistance, etc.
There were actual variety names in the wholesale trade, but they were often soon forgotten. People would see plants that they liked growing in landscapes, take cuttings and grow them for resale, putting their own chosen names on them in the process. Others would do the same thing, not really intending to steal intellectual properties that might be the result of horticultural research – just seeing a plant that they liked and wanting to propagate it. It happened so often that the same original plant might end up being sold under four or five variety names. It created a great deal of confusion.
Dr. Don Egolf, highly respected research horticulturist at the United States National Arboretum, published Lagerstroemia Handbook/Checklist (American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta, Inc., 1978), showing 169 of what he called “valid” cultivar names, but many of those appear to have been of limited distribution and may even be extinct in the trade by now.
When the World Collection Park of The Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney opened in 2011 there were approximately 105 varieties growing side-by-side in it. We had been able to locate and source about 15 more unusual types, but tornadoes across Alabama and other southern states that spring caused them to become unavailable very suddenly.
More and more, sophisticated home gardeners have learned to ask for crape myrtles by their variety names. They do their research ahead of time so they can be sure they’ll get the color, mature size and growth form that they want and that the plant(s) will fit into the space available within the landscape.
To make your variety selection easier, we offer these listings: