2. Crepe Myrtle

SUMMER Part 2: CREPE MYRTLE

And here it is peeking around the southwest corner of the garage, seeking the sun. They love the sun. If they get plenty of sun and sufficient water, they can flourish in the most inauspicious places.

These 2 do well on the narrow space between the west side of my garage and the county road. Look how they yearn toward the east to get the morning sun. Noonday and afternoon sun too is abundant, although about midafternoon the trees across the road start to shade them on the west.

The roof slants all the way from the peak of the house across the patio and the garage. When it rains, a lot of water comes down that roof and spills over onto the crepe myrtles.

As I said, plenty of sun, plenty of water.

Let's take time here to gorge ourselves (more or less chronologically) on those by the garage:

This one that volunteered in that tiny patch of dirt right on the corner of the store where the county road runs into Highway 14 continues to amaze me. Plenty of sunlight I can understand, but water? Maybe the sunlight is more important.

When it finishes blooming I will go out and cut those branches hanging out into the road. I figure now that with all that red a driver would be able to see it.

That post once supported a roof over the store porch, now just an exposed slab of concrete.

It is always the first one to bloom. I reason that having grown up in such a harsh environment it must have learned to be strong.

If I had ever actually planted one here, I'll bet it would have died before sundown!

This one at the southeast corner of the store is always an early bloomer as well. This plant and the two by the garage are probably as old as I am. I cannot remember the yard without them.

Some folks cut back their crepe myrtles every year. I don't. Cutting them back makes them neat, and I tend to like them tall and unruly. And I like the tall spiky naked look of them in wintertime.

Same bush, different angle, taken from the west side of the front yard. One thing I like about my crepe myrtles is that you can see them from so many places in the yard.

To the west of the front porch are my 2 holly bushes. Two different kinds, actually. I used to keep them trimmed into (relatively) neat balls, but in later years I have decided to let them grow up tall to expose their attractive twisted trunks. They too lean toward the eastern sun, and from time to time I have to lop off branches that encroach too much on the porch roof.

At the corner of the store is what my mother called a yew tree. I'm not sure, but it may be. There seem to be lots of variations to the yew. This plant, along with several others in the yard, were purchased with money my mother made taking a school census after WW2. (I rode with her to keep her company.)

They also look nice in the calm before a storm:

I have 1 crepe myrtle against the middle of the east side of the old store and 6 more in a row inside the front fence.

The tall bushes to the right of the plant by the store are sasanquas, which are a variety of camellia. You'll have to wait until the fall (or even winter) to see them in bloom.

The crepe myrtles in the front yard seem to bloom later than the others, and I don't know why. I will try to get pictures of them later, along with shots of the 2 outside the rear bedroom and the 1 on the bank to the west of the back yard.

July 13. Here are the 2 crepe myrtles outside the bedroom at the rear of the house. The one right by the house has a reasonable number of blooms, the other just a few. There is probably a good reason.

In the middle picture, note how the more nearly barren bush leans fairly dramatically toward the west. This crepe myrtle never bloomed when I was a child, although the one further up the hill always had blooms. Then suddenly, about 7 years ago, it began to bloom. I think that finally it had grown tall enough and was able to lean westerly enough to get just that little extra bit of sunshine it needed to bloom. It does now bloom a bit, but only at the very top. The picture on the right is a reverse angle shot taken from the edge of the patio. That bush just outside the rear bedroom window was planted much to close to the house. Every few years I have to get out the chainsaw and cut a trunk or so that have become too close and have started to rub against the edge of my roof. As you see, the cannas are still blooming, and in the distance a couple of lingering day lilies.

Here's a good portrayal of just how much that one plant does lean to the west.

Those leaning oaks you see on the left are down in my woods. They too are trying to get as much sun as possible.

This is the one to the west of the back yard. It was probably planted at the same time as the two by the garage, but there is simply too much shade here.

That's a birdbath base you see, without its basin. I used to put water out for birds, but that's a lot of effort when the birds would never use it. They must be finding plenty of water in the small branch at the foot of the hill or in the lake over on the old Umbria property.

The blooms overhanging the garage have started to shatter and fall. Up close you can see how the blooms are definitely past their use-by date. But gorgeous while they lasted.

The row along the front fence tend to be late bloomers. One of these days soon they may be more spectacular than they appear now. If so, I'll grab a couple of shots. The one just to the left of the center plant, just to the right of the front walk, I planted myself perhaps 8 years ago. It's smaller and hasn't produced much in the way of bloom over the years.

Earlier I said I didn't cut back my crepe myrtles. This easternmost one along the front fence is the exception. It is directly underneath the main telephone line to the house. I think it wise to keep it cut several feet from that line. Actually the line wasn't there when I planted the bush. It ran from the pole to the right of this bush to the front edge of the store porch, down the east side of the store roof, and over to the house near the chimney. That arrangement dated back to when we were first on a 4-party line, the house and the store phones being 2 of those parties. I'm certainly glad I had this changed before the log truck took out the store porch in late 2007!

Looking down the fence toward the west. Not too far around the curve to the right is where the big tornado of 2011 crossed the highway, killing a man and a woman there, before passing about a third of a mile north of Downtown Sawyerville. Those trees across the road were really twisting in the wind. As were my crepe myrtles.

Looking south from outside the west side of the front yard. The smaller crepe myrtle on the right grew from the roots of the bush that was demolished by the car wreck in late summer of 2008. It hasn't done much in the way of blooming just yet. Actually I tried to get extra money from the insurance company (theirs, not mine!) for value added by age (some 70 years) of the destroyed bush. Not successful. I could only get the amount estimated for purchase and planting of a new bush. Oh, well.

The bush to the front left of the porch and rear right of the store is still fairly spectacular, but it too is starting to lose its edge. As do we all as time wears on.

Here we are where it all started this year, the north-west corner of the store. It started early and is staying late. One hardy plant!

In the top right picture you may spot a bumblebee just to the left of center. And here's one coming in for a landing! They were all over these blooms this morning. I think someone sent out the alarm that the crepe myrtles were on the wane and you had to get some while you could!

The front of the store as it looks today. Double doors to permit more air to get in during pre-airconditioned summers. Those windows would be open too. Front and back. Only the single door in the back, but that still helped with gathering in what breeze might come. A large fan suspended from the ceiling behind that far window helped matters a bit as well. And yes, flies did come in with the breeze. Sticky fly tape in coils hanging from the ceiling would catch some, and the rest we'd whack with flyswatters. And of course you'd have your own hand fan carrying the name of some funeral home to fan your face with.

But I'm getting somewhat off topic. Let me leave you with these 3 final images and shut up for a while.

contact form