Double Feature®Crape Myrtle

Once upon a time crape myrtles were always medium-sized trees – great if you have the room, but limited in their use. Today we have some great shrub forms, like the Double Feature® Crape Myrtle. A fabulous bush, it stays in the 6 to 8 foot range, making it ideal in shrub beds, and a plant you can use widely in your garden, even in planters and pots. Since crape myrtles don’t start blooming until summer is well underway, you need something for spring, and this plant has it – rich red-purple foliage that looks great in spring and then steps aside for the blooms by turning to dark green as it matures. Flowers are carried in big, 6-inch clusters, and their petals are so frilly the yellow stamens hardy show, giving a richer, stronger color effect. The flowers are a beautiful purple-toned red, making a stunning feature in your garden, and looking terrific in full sun, where this plant belongs. This variety is sterile, and more flowers come in waves within the existing heads, giving more or less continuous blooming right into fall. Coming from the hands of a major breeder, this isn’t a novelty item, but a durable, well-tested variety that really delivers.

• Large clusters of rich purple-red flowers for months
• Blooms are produced in waves in the same flower heads
• Produces no seeds, so blooming never stops
• Spring foliage is a vibrant, deep, purple-red, turning to dark green
• A compact, shrubby form ideal for beds, pots and smaller spaces

Plant your Double Feature® Crape Myrtle in full sun – this maximizes blooming, which falls off rapidly when the plant is in shade. No spot is too hot for it, although new plants will need water and attention until they are well-established. Any well-drained soil is suitable, even dry, sandy and rocky soils, city gardens and heavy clay. Avoid wet places, which are not suitable. In pots use a well-drained mix like a cactus soil, fertilize regularly with liquid fertilizers, and only water when the top 2 inches of the soil are dry. Deer don’t eat it and it has good resistance to both powdery mildew and Cercospora leaf spot, so the leaves are always clean and glossy. Little pruning is needed, but if you do want to trim, do it in early spring. Flowers develop on new stems, so you won’t reduce blooming by pruning at that time. Remove dead twigs whenever you see one.