So, when I received a letter from them some months back, promising 5 little Crapemyrtles in exchange for a modest donation, I thought, "such a deal!". If you are not already familiar with them, you can see from the picture here how gorgeous they can be! They have wrinkled petals like crepe paper, and also come in all the other varied shades of pink from the shocking pink pictured here to the very palest pink, and even in white; although here in Southern California where I live, most are the bright, bright pink. They seem to love the heat, because I notice that while they are pretty on "my side of the hill" (I live about 2 miles from the ocean, more specifically, the famous or infamous Venice Beach!), in the San Fernando Valley, which is always at least 10 degrees warmer in the spring and summer, and with global warming, is enduring more and more days of 100+ degree weather each year, the Crapemyrtles just go bananas over there, with great clouds of gorgeous blossoms. Apparently they are also quite drought resistant, once established. Now the interesting thing about these "trees" is that they aren't exactly. They're really bushes, but they get so big and woody, (sometimes up to 15-20 feet) they can be (and usually are) groomed to look just like trees. It's the same with Oleander, you know. Growing up, we had at least four different colors/varieties of Oleander that we never bothered to groom into tree forms, so they just stayed like gigantic bushes, but they reached up to about two stories high! (Try explaining to a four year old that the pretty, pretty flowers are a no-no because they're deadly poisonous -- I always wanted to pick them and bring them in the house for bouquets!) But here, just a couple of blocks from where I live, are a whole bunch of Oleanders pruned into little trees, and it always looks a bit odd to me since I grew up thinking of them as bushes. At any rate, back to the Crapemyrtles, apparently they grow in a number of different parts of the country, but it takes less time to grow them here, since they die back in winter in places where it snows, and with no snow here -- they just keep going and growing! By the way, because pruning can directly affect cold hardiness, you should try to have it completed by early August if you're trying to achieve the tree effect.
Now, I knew there was no place for the Crapemyrtles right here where I live, but I have a friend who is very involved with her community garden, and since they are about 10 miles east of us, it gets a lot hotter there than here in the warm weather; and I thought what a lovely gift they would make. I also wanted to set aside one for some friends of mine in northeast L.A., (also gets cussedly hot there in the summer) who are undergoing the trials and tribulations of home renovation; everything is all torn up around their place, but they are avid gardeners and I figured when the dust (or soil) settled around their place, this would make a pretty addition, even if you can't eat it.
So. I eagerly waited. And waited. Then, in early Fall, a letter arrived informing me that they would be shipped sometime between October 15 and December 10, since they had to go dormant first. OK, I thought, I understand. So I waited some more. Finally, around December 15, I called, demanding to know where were my danged Crapemyrtles, since Christmas was coming on and I was afraid I would look cheap to my friend Veronica (the one with the community garden) since those little trees, or bushes, or whatever they are, were to be her Christmas present. They told me what with global warming, everything had been pushed back later, because the warm season had extended far longer than it was supposed to, delaying the plants' dormancy, so they were a little backed up, but they were working hard to get them all out now. Soon, they promised me, any day now. And I believed them. Yes I did, because it did stay far warmer for far longer than it "should" have this year; and as my brother likes to say, try telling the melting polar ice caps that global warming isn't real.
So, finally, three days before Christmas, (which coincidentally was the last time I was going to see Veronica before Christmas), just as I had given up all hope and thought I would be made to look like a cheap bastard, at the last moment, they arrived! At first glance, I thought there was only one; and in a bit of a rage, after waiting all this time, I tore open the bag, cursing as I went; but then I discovered there really were five, they were just little skinny twigs of things... but no matter, because I know those little skinny guys will grow to be magnificent!
So hooray for the future gorgeous clouds of pink, and Happy New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment