Lunar Magic Crape Myrtle

When you can’t decide on what color to choose, there is always the perfect solution – white. This is one color you can never go wrong with. Always sophisticated, never clashing, and especially beautiful on long summer evenings, it simply makes sense. When you grow the Lunar Magic™ Crape Myrtle, can we suggest stepping into your garden late one evening when there is a full moon? When you see the radiance of this plant in that unique light, you will know why it is called Lunar Magic. When the tingles have left your spine, consider the practical uses of this tough and reliable shrub. It’s upright form and perfect height, between 6 and 10 feet tall, makes it ideal for a specimen, or as a screen. In a tub it will stay smaller, but still look wonderful on your terrace. Drought resistant and disease free, this elegant study in white will grace your garden during the hottest months, cooling things down perfectly.

Growing the Lunar Magic™ Crape Myrtle

Size and Appearance

The Lunar Magic Crape Myrtle is an upright deciduous shrub, growing between 6 and 10 feet tall, with a spread of no more than 8 feet, and typically much less. Its size can be controlled by pruning, or you can leave it to grow naturally, maturing into a graceful specimen. Young stems are a rich, deep red, maturing to a soft, dark, olive green. The leaves have a lustrous gloss, and they are a rich, very dark green with a reddish tone. They are about 1½ inches long and ¾ of an inch wide, oval, with smooth edges.

Blooms are carried in clusters of up to 150 flowers, and each cluster is very large and showy, much larger than is seen on most other crape myrtles. They are almost 8 inches long and 6 inches across, packed with blooms, making a spectacular display. Each blossom is an inch across, with a bright-yellow heart of stamens. Flowers are carried all over the bush, not just at the top, so it is covered from head to toe with the gorgeous pure-white, slightly fragrant blossoms. Each cluster takes two weeks to finish blooming, and new clusters form beneath it almost immediately.

Using the Lunar Magic™ Crape Myrtle in Your Garden

This beautiful, showy plant is perfect as a specimen in a shrub bed or standing on a lawn. Plant it beside a patio, or around your home among the evergreens. Grow it in a large tub to show off on a terrace. Use a row along a fence or as a boundary, spacing them 4 feet apart. Wherever you place it, you will love this beautiful plant and its magical blooms.

Hardiness

This shrub is hardy from zone 6 to zone 9, and it thrives in warm, humid areas. In zone 6 there may be winter injury, but it will reliably re-sprout from the base, forming a smaller shrub, but blooming profusely, as blossoms are carried on new shoots.

Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions

Grow the Lunar Magic Crape Myrtle in full sun for the best results. Even a little shade will noticeably reduce blooming. It grows well in any well-drained soils, and poor, dry soils are never a problem. For those tough, dry spots in the garden, this is the perfect choice. Avoid wet areas and heavy soils.

Maintenance and Pruning

Remove the flower heads once the last blossoms fall, as this will encourage many more flowering stems to develop. You can leave the fall blossoms untrimmed, as the seed heads are an interesting winter feature, along with the flaking bark.

There is really no reason to do more than trim the Lunar Magic Crape Myrtle in late winter, before the new leaves form. Remove any damaged or crowded branches and shape the plant a little by removing the ends of the branches of the previous year. Harder pruning is possible, leaving a few inches of the growth from the previous year, but it is usually better to choose a variety that is naturally the size you want, rather than having to constantly trim a plant.

You won’t have to worry about disfiguring diseases that cause early leaf drop and dusty foliage in many older crape myrtles. This variety is highly resistant to both powdery mildew and Cercospora leaf spot, so it always looks fresh, glossy and clean. Pests are normally not problems, and deer usually leave this plant alone.

History and Origin of the Lunar Magic™ Crape Myrtle

The crape myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica, has been grown in America for almost 250 years, since its introduction to Charleston in 1789. The plants we grow today are almost all hybrids with other species, to give better disease resistance and more colorful flowers. Michael Dirr, one of the most outstanding horticultural experts in America today, and his partner Joshua Kardos, established Plant Introductions, Inc. in Watkinsville, Georgia, to develop new garden plants, including improved crape myrtles. They cross-pollinated the pink Moonlight Magic crape myrtle, ‘Piilag-IV’, with the white Diamond Dazzle crape myrtle, ‘Piilag-I’, both plants they had created earlier. Among the seedlings was a spectacular new plant, with huge trusses of white flowers, which they patented in 2019, with the name ‘BAILLAGONE’. Bailey Nurseries made it the newest member of their Magic series, as Lunar Magic™, which has been released in their First Editions® collection of outstanding new garden plants.

Buying the Lunar Magic™ Crape Myrtle at The Tree Center

For the coolest bush around, this is one you can’t pass by. Its icy blooms brighten the evening as no other color can, and those blooms just keep on coming and coming. Don’t miss this chance – order now while our stocks last – oh, and don’t forget to get out on that full moon night.