The Crepe Myrtle

Lagerstroemia

Our lovely Crepe Myrtle, blossoming all summer with a spectacular show of flowers, continues to grow so well for us in Southern California. I especially love the variety of color available, whether it grows as a tree or bush. This photo was taken towards the end of summer. The colors stay through some of the Fall season then the tree goes bare and begs to be pruned and trimmed. Do you have Crape Myrtles in your area?

Commonly known as Crape myrtle or Crepe myrtle, it is a genus of around 50 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs native to the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, northern Australia and parts of Oceania, cultivated in warmer climates around the world. It is a member of the Lythraceae, which is also known as the Loosestrife family. The genus is named after the Swedish merchant Magnus von Lagerström, who supplied Carolus Linnaeus with plants he collected.

Myrtle Quote Examples

"A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. It certainly may secure all the myrtle and turkey part of it." 

-- Austen, Jane (Mansfield Park, ch.22.)

"Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." 

--Bible (Old Testament) Isaiah 55:13. 

"Oh, talk not to me of a name great in story; The days of our youth are the days of our glory; And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty."

--Rochdale ('Stanzas  Written on the Road between Florence and Pisa, November1821'.) 

"Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. And I will make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle. See Raleigh 677:98. 

--Marlowe, Christopher ('The Passionate Shepherd to His Love' (published1599). 

"No pleasing Intricacies intervene, No artful wildness to perplex the scene; Grove nods at grove, each a mirror of the other. The suff'ring eye inverted Nature sees, Trees cut to Statues, Statues thick as trees, With here a Fountain, never to be play'd, And there a Summer-house, that knows no shade; Here Amphitrite sails thro'myrtle bow'rs There Gladiators fight, or die, in flow'rs Un-water'd see the drooping sea-horse mourn, And swallows roost in Nilus'dusty Urn."

-- Pope, Alexander  

 (Epistles to Several Persons,'To Lord Burlington', l.115^25.)

CRAPE-MYRTLE-BUSH-50-SEEDS

There are lots of excellent books for purchase at Amazon.com but I didn't know one could purchase seeds.

This video shows a beautiful display of the Crape Myrtle that grows well  in NC. The music is a riot! :=)

 LadyD Books is participating in Quote It Saturday and Flowers for Saturday.

InLinkz.com

Have a wonderful weekend!

 



“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me." C. S. Lewis