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Plum Magic Crape Myrtle
Lagerstroemia 'Plum Magic' PP23518
In search of a jaw dropping flowering shrub to add to your summer garden? Look no further than this audacious bright pink bush of beauty. The Crape Myrtle Plum Magic is both easy to grow and easy to adore.
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Plum Magic Crape Myrtle Shrub is a semi-dwarf form of crape myrtle, blooming in early summer with fuchsia-pink flowers. It forms a rounded shrub with a dense, full shape.
Plum Magic Crape Myrtle has excellent resistance to leaf spot and powdery mildew and is perfect for adding a shot of summer color in a foundation planting or as an informal hedge. The foliage emerges plum-purple and eventually matures to rich dark green, nicely setting off the bright flowers. It will bloom again in late summer if the first flush of flowers is deadheaded.
| Hardiness Zone: | 6-9 |
|---|---|
| Mature Height: | 6 to 10 feet |
| Mature Width: | 6 to 10 feet |
| Classification: | Semi-dwarf shrub form |
| Sunlight: | Full Sun |
| Habit: | Deciduous, densely branched, multi-stemmed summer through the first frost. |
| Flower Color: | Fuchsia-pink flowers in mid to late summer through the first frost. |
| Foliage: | New growth emerges a rich dark plum purple, changing to an equally vibrant orange-red in the fall. |
| Soil Condition: | Any well drained soil |
| Water Requirements: | Water well until established. |
| Uses: | Extremely attractive when used as a focal point in the mixed border, mass planting, or a specimen planting . Small enough for a large containers on the patio. |
How to Care for Plum Magic Crape Myrtle
Be sure to read our planting instructions to ensure a healthy and happy plant for years to come!
Additional Information
History and introduction Of Crape Myrtle:
In the mid-1960s, the National Arboretum embarked on a crape myrtle breeding program that continues today, forty-five years later. It was begun by the late Donald Egolf, a research horticulturist whose goal was to produce disease-resistant, cold-hardy crape myrtles. In the first five years, he focused on breeding and selecting pure Lagerstroemia indica for these traits. The result was the release of six cultivars in 1967 and 1970, each named for a Native American tribe, chosen to impart a distinctly American designation to introductions from this program. Several of these selections are still widely grown today, including ‘Catawba’, ‘Cherokee’, and ‘Seminole’. Though an improvement over cultivars then available, they were to be followed by a much more important milestone in breeding and development. In 1956, a long-forgotten species of crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia fauriei) was rediscovered on the small Japanese island of Yakushima. Botanists found only one specimen on the island. Seeds collected from that tree were sent back to the United States and dispersed to arboretums and nurseries. The resulting seedling trees proved to be immune to powdery mildew, a disease that often afflicted L. indica and that the USNA breeding project had sought to eradicate. This purely white-flowered tree was less showy in bloom than L. indica, but it bore dramatic cinnamon and burgundy exfoliating bark. Egolf began hybridizing Lagerstroemia indica with the seedlings of L. fauriei. He hoped to impart disease resistance and handsome bark to the hybrid offspring, which were assigned the name L. xfauriei. What he achieved was a lasting legacy of spectacular and popular cultivars. Disease resistance, beautiful bark, and enhanced cold hardiness were imparted to these hybrids, just as Egolf had planned. Following the release of the first hybrid selections (‘Muskogee’ and ‘Natchez’) in 1978, twenty-one hybrid cultivars would be selected, named, and introduced over the next twenty-five years. Each was thoroughly tested for disease resistance, length of bloom, and cold hardiness in Washington, DC (USDA zone 7a). Later, a third cold-hardy species was added to the hybrid program: Lagerstroemia limii, a lavender-flowered species occasionally grown in western Oregon. Its large furry leaves and rough bark distinguished it from L. indica and L. fauriei. In 2003, the first two triple hybrids were released, fulfilling a long-sought goal: the introduction of truly red-flowered hybrid crape myrtles (‘Arapaho’ and ‘Cheyenne’) with disease resistance. This National Arboretum breeding program continues to use names of Native American tribes, though not all of the introductions so named are hybrids; the first six cultivars were purely Lagerstroemia indica. Lagerstroemia indica, commonly known as crape myrtle, is an upright, wide-spreading, multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub or small tree in the loosestrife family. It typically grows to 15-25’ tall. It is native from the Himalayas through southern China, southeast Asia and Japan, but has naturalized in the U.S. from Virginia to Arkansas south to Texas and Florida. An additional common name is Lilac of the South in reference to its popularity in southern gardens (USDA Zones 7-9). Key ornamental features include long bloom period, exfoliating bark and superb fall color. Terminal, crepe-papery inflorescences (to 6-18” long) of showy flowers with crimped petals bloom in summer (sometimes to frost) on upright branches. In the wild, flowers are typically rose to red. Cultivated varieties have expanded the flower color range to include white, pink, mauve, lavender and purple.
