I would like to know if anyone knows of a cold hardy crape myrtle. I have seen them in Abq but I am in los lunas near the river and I think I am in zone 5. I fear it is too cold here for them. I did hear about some that were developed at the university od Kanas that were more cold hardy but have not been able to find any info on them.
I've grown one called 'Tonto' through three winters now, here in Canon City CO/zone 6, but it has died back down to the ground each year. It has a bark mulch around it and I pile some more around the base in the fall to try and keep the ground from freezing too much. It's back up to about two feet tall now and I expect some flowers again in late August/September, pretty late but that's the best it's done so far. We had a mild Fall followed by a relatively abrupt cold snap to minus 12 in early December, so I was just glad to see it come back up this Spring.
There are some others with Native American-sounding names - 'Zuni' and 'Hopi' come to mind, that are supposed to be extra-hardy too. Many times the trick with marginally hardy plants is to baby them through the first couple winters like with the extra bark mulch; then as they become more established they often get a little hardier. I still hope to get mine to the point where the stems near the base will survive, and give me a little bit more substantial shrub-like plant. We'll see...
