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Red Hot Black Diamond Crape Myrtle

Lagerstroemia hybrid 'Ebony Embers'

4 Reviews

Red Hot Black Diamond Crape Myrtle

Lagerstroemia hybrid 'Ebony Embers'

4 Reviews

This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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How are the heights measured?

All tree, and nothin' but the tree! We measure from the top of the soil to the top of the tree; the height of the container or the root system is never included in our measurements.

What is a gallon container?

Nursery containers come in a variety of different sizes, and old-school nursery slang has stuck. While the industry-standard terminology is to call the sizes "Gallon Containers", that doesn't exactly translate to the traditional liquid "gallon" size we think of. You'll find we carry young 1-gallons, up to more mature 7-gallons ranging anywhere from 6 inches to 6ft.

How does the delivery process work?

All of our orders ship via FedEx Ground! Once your order is placed online, our magic elves get right to work picking, staging, boxing and shipping your trees. Orders typically ship out within 2 business days. You will receive email notifications along the way on the progress of your order, as well as tracking information to track your plants all the way to their new home!

Why are some states excluded from shipping?

The short & sweet answer is: "United States Department of Agriculture Restrictions." Every state has their own unique USDA restrictions on which plants they allow to come into their state. While we wish we could serve everyone, it's for the safety of native species and helps prevent the spread of invasive disease & pests. We've gotta protect good ole' Mother Nature, after all.

About Me

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The Red Hot™ Black Diamond® Crape Myrtle is a new variety that combined flowers in a powerful red with rich foliage that is deep burgundy. This colorful combination lasts for months, since the foliage holds its color and never fades. The flowers too last from June to the first frost, so for long-lasting and vibrant colors, this tree cannot be beaten. It grows rapidly into a small tree 12 to 15 feet tall, or with simple annual trimming it can be kept smaller. Grow it as a colorful specimen tree or large shrub, as a screen or hedge, or as background planting in your garden. Wherever you grow it you will love the vigor and easy ways of this wonderful plant.

  • Bright red flowers from June into fall
  • Rich red-black foliage that never fades
  • Stunning small tree for hot, dry locations
  • Resistant to diseases, so always beautiful
  • Tolerant of poor soil and urban conditions

The Red Hot™ Black Diamond® Crape Myrtle is completely hardy in zones 7, 8 and 9. It will also grow in zone 6, reliably re-sprouting after the winter. Everywhere it will flower profusely, and the foliage is always beautiful, never suffering from the disfiguring diseases common in older crape myrtles. It grows best in full sun, and it is tolerant of all types of soil, doing well in any well-drained ground. Once established it is very drought resistant, and it needs no special attention to thrive almost anywhere.

Plant Hardiness Zones 6-9
Mature Width 8
Mature Height 12-15
Sun Needs Full Sun
Zones 6-9

If you love bright color in your garden, you will adore the Red Hot™ Black Diamond® Crape Myrtle. This dramatic new variety combines bright red flowers and red-black foliage to bring rich, vibrant colors to your garden, not just for a week or two, but all season long. The foliage emerges purple-brown, and remains a rich burgundy all season long, even in the hottest summer. This is a big improvement over earlier red-leaf crape myrtles, which fade to dark green after their spring show. The flowers are also with us for months, starting in June and continuing until the first frost. Together they create a colorful and easy-to-grow small tree that will bring massive color to your garden for months and months.

Growing Red Hot™ Black Diamond® Crape Myrtle

In smaller gardens particularly, getting the most from every plant is so important. For this it is very hard to beat the Red Hot™ Black Diamond® Crape Myrtle. The year begins when the new shoots emerge in spring. They begin a dusky purple color, and quickly become a rich burgundy red. This color lasts all summer, even in the hottest areas. In June the flowering begins. The flowers are carried at the ends of new branches, in cluster a full 4 inches long and 4 inches across.

Since every branch ends in a flower cluster, the whole plant is covered in these beautiful blooms. Each individual flower is over an inch across, and there are many flowers in the clusters, which continue to bloom for about two weeks. The flowers open a bright, powerful true red, and darken to a rich red by the second day. Set against the deep burgundy of the foliage, the effect is wonderful.

You can encourage the maximum blooming by removing the flower heads when they finish producing blooms. Cut them off at the first pair of full-sized leaves, and usually you will already see new shoots emerging, bringing more and more flowers in a continuous succession until the first frost. Since flowering begins in June, this means months and months of blooming, just when your garden is used most for the summer – what could be better?

Uses in Your Garden

Grow the Red Hot™ Black Diamond® Crape Myrtle as a small specimen tree in a lawn or paved area. Plant it as a row, spacing plants 5 feet apart, to create a flowering screen or informal hedge. Use it behind other shrubs and flowering plants, to create a colorful and vibrant backdrop. Its smaller size makes it ideal in small gardens, or plant in groups in larger spaces to enjoy its colors at their richest. This tree grows and blooms best in full sun, so use it in those hot spots where other plants have failed. It loves heat and drier soil, thriving in any well-drained soil, from sand to clay, and including gravels and stony soils. Urban conditions are easily tolerated, and it thrives at the seaside too.

Size and Appearance

The Red Hot™ Black Diamond® Crape Myrtle is fast-growing. Within four years it will be 6 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet across. It will rapidly grow into a vase-shaped small tree or large shrub, soon reaching 12 feet or more in height. It can be trained to have a trunk or one or a few branches, or kept as a shrub with branches to the ground. Hard pruning in late winter, before the leaves emerge, will keep it smaller, and flowering will not be reduced by trimming at this time, since the flowers form on new shoots. Do not trim new growth in spring or summer, as this will limit the production of flowers.

Planting and Initial Care

Most crape myrtles are only hardy to zone 7, but the Red Hot™ Black Diamond® Crape Myrtle is hardy in zone 6, making it possible for gardeners in cooler areas to grow this wonderful plant. Choose a sheltered spot in full sun, such as against the south side of your house, if you live in colder regions. Wait until the new shoots begin to emerge before pruning, and simply remove all dead stems at that time. Plants in zone 6 will only grow 3 to 6 feet tall, but they will bloom just as profusely as in warmer areas, since the flowers form on new stems.

Pests and Diseases

This tree is resistant to the powdery mildew that often disfigures the foliage of older types, covering them in dusty gray powder all summer long. It is also resistant to most other crape myrtle diseases, and vigorous and tough enough to be free of serious pests. So this plant is very easy to care for, and looks great all year round.

History and Origins of the Red Hot™ Black Diamond® Crape Myrtle

A fabulous plant like the Red Hot™ Black Diamond® Crape Myrtle takes years of skilled breeding to create. Dr. Cecil Pounder, a Research Geneticist with the Agricultural Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture gave us this terrific plant. He used an older variety with red leaves, called ‘Chocolate Mocha’, and mixed it with other crape myrtles. After years of work he had created several red-leaves plants with different flower colors, and he called them the Ebony series. The precise name of the Red Hot™ Crape Myrtle is ‘Ebony Embers’.

All these plants were taken up by J. Berry Nursery, who have released them as the Black Diamond® series, which brings together these plants, and other top-quality red-leafed varieties. Our plants are produced by skilled nursery workers, from stem pieces selected from plants identical to the original plant. Cheaper seedling plants will be completely unlike this highly-bred variety, and vastly inferior. Our regular customers come to us for our cutting-edge crape myrtles, and we know that our top-quality stock of this great variety will soon be gone. Order now while our limited stock lasts.

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Red Hot Black Diamond Crape Myrtle

Lagerstroemia hybrid 'Ebony Embers'

4 Reviews