I love this little Crepe Myrtle. The flowers are a soft lavender color, which lasts all summer long. It's at the old Post Office here in town. the building is a low Frank Lloyd Wright inspired 1960's horizontal glass and stone work marvel. The Post Office left this building and the landscaping has not been kept up. In fact, this little tree was backed into by a truck during a Festival when the parking lot was being used. It came back - then the neighboring funeral home next door cut it to the ground. I decided right then and there that I was going to save some of this tree and move it to my yard. I think the lavender color and some white crepe myrtle would be a nice addition to the front garden.
I have tried softwood cuttings all of which failed despite my best efforts. So now i am going to try hardwood cuttings. If that doesn't work I'll try layering and see if that gives me some results. I took several branches from the back of the tree ( not that anyone will care) and i have them in the kitchen.
Tom at Seventh Street Cottage suggested putting some in course orchid mix - so I'm trying that.
I had the tops left so i stuck them in some water in a glass. They have sprouted!
I may just be forcing the branches - but life is life! It's exciting! I really hope some take root.
David
p.s. Larry - here's the photo of the "Old Post office" building. Thought you might like it too.
Good for you. I love that it is a plant rescue. I am waiting for spring to see if my mom's rose bush that I moved a hundred mile north to my house will have survives. It is a beautiful bush that you are saving.
ReplyDeletethanks Larry - there are others i need to rescue also -
ReplyDeleteI'm trying an experiment to get the larger hard-wood branches I pruned off my Crepe Myrtle to grow in a bucket of water. Nice to see this can happen at least on a small scale.
ReplyDeleteDid these cuttings in the water end up getting roots?? and were you able to sucessfully replant them?
anonynous - no they never did root - another blogging friend told me not to even try until the night-time soil temp was over 70F. I still have had no luck - uh!
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