Crape myrtle Red Rocket
* Common name: Crape myrtle Red Rocket(R)
Crape myrtle ‘Red Rocket.’
* Botanical name: Lagerstroemia indica ‘Whit IV’
* What it is: A large, multi-stemmed flowering shrub (or small tree, depending on whether you prune) that gets clusters of ruby-red flowers from July through September. Nice exfoliating, smooth bark as it ages. New leaves are bronzy-red, and fall foliage is a deeper bronze.
* Size: About 8 feet tall and 6 to 7 feet wide is a good maintenance size, but it’ll grow into a 15- to 20-foot tree without pruning. Prune in early spring.
* Where to use: Makes a good upright specimen at a sunny house corner out front. Left unpruned, it’s a good front-yard tree for a small yard. Also be used along borders, in back-yard corners or at a patio corner. Best in full sun.
* Care: Virtually none, other than the annual size-control pruning. If an unusually cold winter kills top growth, prune it back to live wood or the whole way to the ground if necessary. New shoots should arise from the ground. Japanese beetles sometimes attack leaves in July. A spring scattering of a balanced granular fertilizer is optional. Very drought-tough once established.
* Great partner: Dwarf boxwoods are a good semi-formal, evergreen underplanting. Dwarf butterfly bush ‘Lo and Behold Blue Chip’ is a good flowering-shrub partner. Liriope is a good perennial groundcover.
— George Weigel