Center Stage® Pink Crape Myrtle

In today’s busy world, the last thing you want it to be fussing over the plants in your garden. Let’s have some easy, vigorous, and reliable plants – like the Center Stage® Pink Crape Myrtle. Earlier into bloom than most other varieties, you will enjoy the hot pink flowers through summer and into the fall. The flowers are produced in abundance, in small clusters over the whole plant, instead of large panicles. You will also enjoy the deep-red foliage from spring to frost, because this variety has been bred for reliable, no-browning color and resistance to that dusty powdery mildew seen on so many older varieties. This is a compact, shrub-like plant, rather than a tree, so it’s great in shrub beds, and ideal for today’s smaller gardens. It will grow between 6 and 12 feet tall, but be no more than 8 feet across – perfect for filling gaps in your beds – we know you have some! If you have a hot, dry spot drenched in sun, you need strong colors to stand out, and a plant that will take that heat. Here it is.

• Red-black foliage is disease-free and stays rich right through summer
• Smothered in many small heads of glowing pink blooms
• Shrubby, upright form is perfect for smaller spaces
• Good resistance to powdery mildew means clean leaves all summer
• Very tolerant of heat and humidity, and drought resistant too

In full sun is where you should plant your Center Stage® Pink Crape Myrtle – it has been shown that even a small amount of shade reduces flowering. Plant it in any well-drained soil, from sand to clay, and this is a plant that thrives on difficult sites. Water and fertilizer newly-planted bushes, but once established you have a drought-tolerant plant that needs no attention. Because it is naturally bushy and twiggy, it also doesn’t need pruning, but if you feel the urge, do it in early spring, trimming as needed – flowers form on new growth, so you won’t reduce blooming with a spring trim. Deer don’t eat it, there are rarely any significant pest issues, and it has good resistance to powdery mildew, so no need to spray to have clean leaves.