Crepe Myrtles

Last fall when we bought our house there were two trees that had been planted in the summer. One of them looked to be dead and the other had only one or two green leaves on it. As part of our agreeing to buy the house I asked for the trees to be replaced. I also asked if I could pick the replacement trees. Since there were crepe myrtles that my grandmother had planted growing in front of our house when I was younger I really wanted some. Those had been the bright magenta colored blooms that are a trifle overblown. For those who might not be familiar with them, most of the common crepe myrtles are magenta, lavendar and white. The trees that got put into the front yard actually looked to be almost in worse shape than the trees that were removed and I thought they might die over the winter.

Flash to April when the trees had just begun to leaf out, and the whole area was struck with a severe frost. It killed the top of the limbs of the tree and turned all of the leaves brown. For a month nothing grew on them and finally leaves started coming out. While D and I were out shopping I noticed that there were crepe myrtles in the parking lot of the store and they were RED. I had never seen a red crepe myrtle before and I was in love. Since we didn't have any idea what the color of those that were planted in our yard were I got a flash of hope that they might be red too, but what are the chances. A couple of weeks ago I noticed the flower buds on them, and finally yesterday they opened up and they were....RED! Actually only one has opened up so far I haven't seen the other yet. I'm hoping it's red too, since red and magenta together look like colors a cheap hooker might wear. But I guess we'll see. :)