Growing Gardens

with Anita Morton

One of the best flowering trees in the world is growing all around us - though unfortunately it is rarely allowed to show its true beauty. Lagerstroemia indica, the Crepe Myrtle, is one of the most abused trees in garden history.

Many gardeners, who are otherwise kindly souls, feel obliged to brutally massacre their Crepe Myrtles in order to force the plant into an unnatural show of flowers. They prune their unfortunate bushes down to a stub every winter, all so that the spindly re-growth will burst into a riot of bloom the next summer.

The sad fact is that, even if pruning is stopped, these maltreated plants will never reach their full potential. Left alone and unpruned since planting, L. indica grows into an elegant, slender tree up to 7m tall, and flowers on the new growth at the branch tips in shades of white, mauve, purple, pink and red. They are beautiful in all seasons, being covered in small yellow leaves in autumn, displaying gorgeous mottled bark in winter, and fresh green foliage in spring.

They grow easily from seed, so if you have inherited a maltreated L. indica, you can always grow on a replacement from its own seed. The new tree (and please let it be a tree) is unlikely to be exactly the same colour as the parent - if you want a carbon copy, you will have to try striking a cutting.

Crepe Myrtles are available as named varieties from nurseries. The 'Summer' series L. indica are a range of smaller trees, and come in designated colours, so if you particularly require white flowers, for example, this is the way to go. Otherwise, collect some of the fine seeds from a neighbour's tree and let the seedlings be a happy surprise.

Lismore Garden Club News

The first Club meeting is Thursday, February 3, at the Lismore Workers Club at 1.30pm. There is an interesting nurseries tour and morning tea planned for the February social outing. Details TBA.

Have you thought about making New Year's resolutions for your garden? A list of things to do, such as putting in that fishpond, bog garden or installing a greenhouse or birdbath?

Weedy or overgrown gardens can present a very daunting task. How about a resolution to pull the garden back into shape and prune leggy native shrubs? Make a list of the hardest jobs first and stick to it.

Typically for this time of the year, there are several species of wasps in the garden. In general they are a valuable asset to the gardener as they kill many of the destructive insects. The only one that may present a potential problem is the paper wasp (so named because it builds a paper like nest in shrubs and trees). If you brush against its nest, you'll more than likely get stung. Baygon makes a wasp spray, but be careful not to spray any insecticide near fishponds, as it's toxic to fish.

Happy gardening,
Ron Burns