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Is it Spelled Crape Myrtle or Crepe Myrtle?

Lythraceae has an interesting history of misspellings for its common name that are worth researching. The two most acceptable ones are crape myrtle and crepe myrtle, though they can still be hotly debated with final decisions usually being accounted for by where debaters grew up.

I love that my white crepe myrtle’s blooms fall like snow in July giving us at least a mentally cooling effect. The flowers grow in grape cluster style and the tiny blossoms are similar to crepe paper with their ruffly petals. They cover lower plants and green grass with a delightful white layer that makes us wish for winter on a hot summer day.

Allowing them to grow, trimming bottom branches to just above head height, rather than chopping the tops off each fall, gives an owner a lovely cooling sunshade in summer’s hot months. Bottom suckers need to be removed each season but it’s an easy job and well worth doing.

Crepe myrtle’s papery bark sheds at summer’s end for a showy display all its own and the bare branches allow warming sun to shed its warmth on outdoor spaces through cold months. Positioning a bench or two beneath this tree’s canopy gives a chance for year round relaxation.

  • Question of

    Have you ever seen a white Crepe Myrtle’s summer snowfall?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    Do you get to enjoy a Crepe Myrtle canopy in your landscape?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    Did you know that there are many varieties of Crepe Myrtle?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    Have you ever seen Crepe Myrtle murder, or the tops chopped off the trees?

    • Yes
    • No

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What do you think?

10 Points

Written by robertatalloni

13 Comments

    • They can grow to quite a grand scale, can they not?! :- ) We just trimmed overgrown undergrowth from three so our canopy could open up a bit. Neighbors warned us from such a task. Others brought us water as they didn’t think we were drinking enough. (How nice to have such neighbors!) When all was said and done, we were quite weary, but very thankful for safety in the big undertaking! They will start regrowing the undergrowth this summer and we’ll have new blooms next year, but we won’t have this big job to do again for a long while.

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  1. I am trying to think of another plant where the scientific name is spelled one way and the common name sounds the same but is spelled differently. None comes to mind (but probably will later, like at 3 am, lol) but in this case the wrinkly meaning is the same whether it is spelled crape or crepe.

  2. HelloI can not answer where the quiz shows me a duplicate site
    so here I use the opportunity:

    I can not answer where the quiz shows me a duplicate site
    so here I use the opportunity:
    Thank you for your participation and praise. 6 out of 8 excellent.

  3. I have a crimson color crepe and love it! The bright red blooms are so pretty. I cut mine back like you suggested every year. And I spell it crepe.