Starting in 1943, at which time our family moved into a tiny little (but brand new) house in Tulsa, Oklahoma, crape myrtle bushes held my mother's interests and caused her work. She loved the bushes that we had observed in our travels through Texas during the previous years (please see Livin' the American Dream and Livin' the American Dream - Part 2 to see photos of the home-built mobile home in which we lived during our travels), and immediately planted a bush or two next to the foundation on the east side of the house. They thrived.
In 1946, we moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and Mom promptly planted a crape myrtle bush next to the foundation on the east side of the house. Kansas City is not/was not Tulsa. That miserable little shrub died and was replaced. The new one didn't die, but it didn't thrive, either. It struggled through the years and in about 20 or 30 years got to a size where it was respectable and it bloomed beautifully. (Of course, it's possible that the bush was replaced more than once without my being aware of it since I left Kansas City in 1955.)
Fast forward. While living in the panhandle of Florida in the early 1980s, I noticed a small tree that grew next to a building on Tyndall AFB (I worked in a different building on the base.) When I first noticed the tree, it was bare of leaves for the winter; but, it had such an interesting shape and such lovely bark that I made a mental note to check it out when summer came. Came summer and the "tree" bloomed. You guessed it! It was a crape myrtle.
A couple or three years after we moved into this house (moved in December 1999), I was replacing some shrubs in the front foundation plantings that had not done well. In memory of Mom, I planted a small crape myrtle (please see Crepe Myrtle Time for a photo of it - note that I can never remember whether it is "crepe" or "crape") bush. It grew a bit and bloomed and endured for a couple of years. It was so pretty that when I saw crape myrtle bushes on sale at Wal-Mart, I bought two more and put them into the ground next to the original The cheapie bushes quickly outgrew the original bush and the three bushes look lovely each July when they bloom (please see Pretty Posies for a photo of the three bushes.).
Several days ago, I snapped a few more photos of the crape myrtles in bloom. If you are bored with such photos, I'll ask that you move on NOW! Otherwise, please see below the "fold".
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