It's a crape myrtle, and they come in all sizes, from dwarf to 30 foot trees.

In your climate, they may die to the ground every winter, so they may not grow that big.

Nell

Are the leaves heart shaped? When did it bloom - last week? It may be a late-blooming lilac. I have seen them locally here, and am trying to track them down. I go by the home of one of the Dominion Arboretum's leading lilac breeders and there is something like that in his yard. It was a month or so ago, though. Let me if any of this sounds right.

Nancy.

I, too, think it is a crape myrtle. They grow as shrubs or can be trained to become small trees. They come in pinks, purples, and red and bloom through the summer. They are very common here in California--they stand up to extreme heat very well. But we get no snow and little frost--as foxesearth said, they might behave differently in your climate.

That is probably the prettiest crepe myrtle I have ever seen!
Like my vitex, I think I will cut mine to the ground each winter. I do it after it goes dormant.

"Crape myrtles are among the toughest, most adaptable, and showiest plants that can be grown on Texas landscapes. The dark green leaves often turn orange or red in fall. Sometimes called "the Lilac of the South", and "perhaps the most beautifully branching flowering tree in the world."

The deciduous Crape Myrtle is among the longest-blooming shrubs (up to 120 days), and varies in size from dwarf to large shrubs or small trees. It has dense clusters of crinkled, crepe-papery flowers in white or shades of pink, red, or purple, and lives happiest in hot-summer climates."

Libby

I'll have to check it out this winter to see what it looks like but it has been there for a few years now so whatever it is does survive the Missouri weather and it gets coldddd! It's been in bloom about a week I think and I took the picture today. Tomorrow I may need to get out of the car and see how it smells. :)

It is a Crepe Myrtle or Crape Myrtle.
I'm growing several in my yard.
They bloom in mid-summer here - like right now.

I love their colorful flowers in summer, but they have beautiful trunks too. I let mine grow into small trees. The beautiful wood is cool, smooth and hard. In fall, the leaves change to bright yellows, oranges, reds, pinks and purples and the small, dried seed balls turn dark and add their own beauty as well. In winter the bare trunks & branches and remaining seed balls are lovely against wintry skies, especially when coated in ice or frosted with snow.

Beautiful as shrubs or small trees.

~ Annie

Another vote for it being a crape myrtle. I have one with a similar color which I let grow as a small tree. Not near as impressive as the one in the photo, as far as amount of blooms is concerned, but it's still one of my favorite plants. Dependably reliable for flowers in August in my climate, which is to say a lot. The Fall colors are usually outstanding as well.

Eduarda

It's a Crepe Myrtle, and a beautiful one! I don't think I have ever seen one as a shrub. They are commonly trained to be trees around here. Here is a raspberry crepe from my backyard.

They are also very easy to root. I've taken some pruned lower branches and rooted them without a problem.

If you're interested you might want to ask permission to take a cutting and try rooting it yourself.

Marilyn

Yes, it's a crape myrtle. Lagerstroemias come in all sizes...tiny to huge. Here's a link to one of my suppliers where you can see a nice list, some with photos.

Here is one of my Tuscarora:

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Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: scroll down to lagerstroemia

Hmmmmm - I wonder if it could be pushed another zone???!!!

They are not supposed to be at all hardy in zone 5, how do they do it?

Any other zone 5 people grow this? (just curious because I would love to grow one!)

I am curious too. I grew one that was supposed to be hardy in zone 6 but it didn't survive. I see them all over Virginia when I visit relatives there but I didn't think they were hardy here. Maybe Maeflower could tell us what time of the year she took that picture and although she is zone 5, aren't other parts of Missouri in a warmer zone?

I wonder if this a new cold hardy cultivar? Judging by its size, it looks like it's been there awhile.

Marilyn

Crepe myrtles are trees. A tree that does not need to be pruned unless you wish to keep small and bushey. They grow well in zones 6-11. Drought tolerant.

Flower has a beautiful variety and she's in Florida.

Here's mine.
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Brenda,
I'm intrigued by this too. I found a posting from a person on Dave's Plant Files that lives in Rochester. Here it is:
On Jun 23, 2006, creeping_jenny from Rochester, NY wrote:

For many years I admired the mysterious bush my neighbors had gowing in front of their house. I used to think of it as a summer azalea, because that was what it resembled, superficially. When I finally asked my 90-year-old neighbor what the bush was, he explained that he had brought a cutting of it with him from Texas when his family moved up here to Rochester, NY (zone 6a-5b). I couldn't quite understand what he called it in Spanish, so it still took me awhile to figure out what the heck it was.

Once I found out that it was a crepe myrtle, I was intrigued, especially since I had never seen it growing up here. My neighbor's bush is about 3 feet high, despite a northwest exposure and winter storms that can drop 2 feet of snow. It comes back every year, mainly from the base, and blooms late summer.

Now, how to get one of my own? My neighbor gave me some fall cuttings, but I think the timing was wrong--they didn't take, even indoors. There aren't any crepe myrtle plants available at nurseries here, either. My only option was to start some mail-order seeds indoors during Winter 2005. I ended up planting out several vigorous plants with pretty pink, lavendar, and white blooms in a sheltered area of my garden. About half of them made it through winter 2006 and have resprouted this June. I'm excited to see how they will do this summer, and if they will get appreciatively bigger.

So I guess they will live! Another plant to acquire, lol. : )
Remy

First, let's spell it correctly crApe myrtle. :-)

indica x fauriei indicates the Southern US variety crossed with the Japanese variety. This hybrid is most common these days.

The 'Natchez' varieties are supposed to be more cold-hardy. Natchez was introduced at the US Arboretum in Washington, DC and I think that one is white. I think they've introduced some others, so if you're in that area, look up what they've introduced.

I can tell you that a freeze around the first week of April will kill off all those gorgeous buds in our zone. Crape myrtles love full sun and hot weather. They tolerate drought, they can grow as street trees and in parking lots of fast-food restaurants.

Improper pruning around the South is known as "crape murder" due to cutting straight across instead of in a nice tree shape.

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The dark reddish brown foliage behind these echinops is also a crape myrtle. It is 'white chocolate', a shrub size that will bloom white...when I can keep the Japanese Beetles off of it. This year, I managed to get it to keep the leaves by using Neem oil, so I'm hoping for blooms. I don't have a JB problem with the 'Tuscarora' variety.

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I put some honking big crape myrtle pics in the Gallery. Much research has been done at TAMU on Crapes, and at Auburn University, but only in mild climates. Some cultivars are listed as more cold hardy than others.

Some of mine bloom earlier than others, and rebloom. That says to me that some would probably get enough heat in a colder zone to bloom mid-summer. They are among the last trees to put out leaves here.

Nell

Here is a link that might be useful: What I Know about Crape Myrtles

Crepe myrtle
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
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Crepe myrtle

Lagerstroemia indica
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Myrtales
Family: Lythraceae
Genus: Lagerstroemia
Linnaeus
Species
See text
The common crepe mirtle was introduced in South Carolina by Andre Michaux. This multistemmed shrub with crepe-like texture petals, and diverse colors is resistant to frosts. The genus is dedicated to Magnus von Lagerstroem, who supplied Linnaeus plant he collected.

The local plant nursery told us years ago that our climate (we're on a small mountain) was too cold for crape myrtles but clearly the newer varieties are hardy here because they're everywhere.

Don't get me started on "crape murder" - everyone seems to prune them down to stubby shrubs over the winter and they are so ugly.

So if you have a crape myrtle that has not been pruned in years and needs to be cut down to size, how is it best pruned without committing the dreaded crape murder?

-Sharon

In Havana, FL, they cut them to the ground and when new sprouts put out, they pruned back all but the best three and let them grow into small trees.

If you have one not too big, you can just cut the top off, shorter than where you want it to branch. It will branch into a pretty tree that you can lightly prune the ENDS of the branches every year.

Crape Murder is when a tree is pruned back to a single trunk, then every year, the branches are all pruned back near the nub, ending up with a wad of nubs that put out a bouquet of blossoming branches atop a stick. Search for 'Crape Murder' and Crepe Murder' for a bunch of bad examples.

I have some pics of crape myrtle bark exfoliating and 'Grandma's Purse' in a crape myrtle blossom, and close ups of individual flowers, maybe. When I get them processed into Photobucket, I'll put them in the thread in the Gallery 'What I Know about Crape Myrtles.

Nell