This year I made a strange request for my birthday. Well, it was a strange request for me. I asked my friends and family to throw in together and buy me a tree in lieu of other types of presents. They all gave me a rather odd look as I made my request. You see, if you’ve read some of my other blogs, you’ll know that I’m not the best gardener on the planet. However, I knew exactly what kind of tree I wanted.
Five days after my birthday, my tree arrived. It was close to seven and half feet tall. A landscaping service came to help me plant it and to remove the dead tree from the yard. When we purchased our house 18 months ago, there was a pine-like tree in the front yard. It never seemed to be doing well and by last winter, it pretty much died. So they dug up around the old tree, removed it and cleared the area so we could plant the new one.
The tree they were planting was a crape myrtle. You may have seen them, they are very popular in the southern part of the United States and when they flower, and they are extremely beautiful. At their full height and growth, a crape myrtle can reach 12 to 20 feet in height.
The crape myrtle is ideal for landscaping in community developments because it provides abundant color throughout the summer even during drought conditions; once it has been well rooted. The tree was attractive to me on several levels but the two primary reasons I wanted this crape myrtle were the abundant flowering color and the low maintenance factors.
Anything that I can plant that requires low maintenance is good for me. The other bonuses to crape myrtle is that once it is established, it is relatively free of insect difficulties and disease. There are a multitude of colors from white to lavender to pink and red.
My crape myrtle is a dynamite red crape myrtle. I’ve always seen purple and lavender ones, which are beautiful enough – red is my all time favorite color. So that is the one I selected. It took a little over an hour to get the root ball settled into the ground and we added good fertilizer and plenty of mulch.
Once planted, it’s now time to nurse the tree through the first few weeks to make sure that it can establish itself. The primary consideration is water. A lot of young trees do not do well in community developments because spray irrigation systems do not provide them with enough water.
To compensate for this, we’re giving the tree a minimum of five gallons of water a day via a five-gallon bucket. The bucket has three small holes drilled into the bottom. This allows the water to be concentrated over the root ball area and not to be leached off into the rest of the yard.
The first two or three weeks are critical, because the root ball must be encouraged to spread. It can only do this with plenty of water. While the crape myrtle is not flowering yet, my husband and my daughter are as engaged in the care taking of the tree as I am.
Last night, my daughter started singing it lullabies. She’s learned from school that it helps plants to grow if you talk to them. She wants to sing to the tree so that it will grow strong and be happy with our family. This weekend, our tree is going to be joined by three new floribunda rose bushes in shades of yellow, purple and red. My daughter can hardly wait – she’s already told them one story where they wait in their pots.