CREPEY

I noticed a flowering bush in a friend's yard and I said, "That bush looks like crepe myrtle but I didn't think crepe myrtle grew in Ohio." He said, "The woman who lived here before us said it's the only crepe myrtle bush in Fayette County." He told that the woman had said she'd brought it from the south and had babied, coddled, and protected it and now it blooms every year. I told him that my mother had fallen in love with the flowers because my brother had crepe myrtle growing in his back yard in Florida. We had brought several plants from Florida at different times to try to have it grow here but with no success.

I posted on the Facebook Group page "I Grew Up In Washington Court House" and asked if anyone else had seen crepe myrtle in Fayette County. I received 10 comments. A man living in Florida who had also lived in North Carolina said that crepe myrtle would NOT grow in Ohio. I received numerous comments from others telling about having crepe myrtle right here in Fayette County. Two respondents wrote to tell that they have bushes; one person wrote that her father also has them. She sent the pictures you see here. In conversations with others, I've learned of eight people with crepe myrtle bushes with three different colors.

Now I MUST have crepe myrtle, as soon as I learn the "secrets" of growing them in Ohio!