Crape Myrtles in Western Oregon

Lagerstroemia 5 fauriei ‘Natchez’. Photographs by author

Crape myrtles (Lagerstroemia) offer the powerful triple allure of brilliant flowers (late in the season), beautiful bark, and vivid fall color. Long grown in western Oregon, they are enjoying a surge of discovery among gardeners. Often thought of as trees and shrubs for hotter climates, a wide range of cultivars have proven their adaptability in our milder summers, and others are waiting to be discovered by gardeners.

In 1974, Ted Van Veen, owner of Van Veen Rhododendron Nursery in southeastern Portland, learned of the crape myrtle breeding program at the United States National Arboretum in Washington, DC. Intrigued by the prospect of new hybrids with superior cold hardiness and greater disease resistance than the Lagerstroemia indica selections then available, Van Veen hoped to test them in Portland, at what he then perceived was their limit of cold hardiness.

In the following year, he received five new crape myrtles, unnamed and identified only by cultivar numbers, from the National Arboretum. He planted three at the front of his nursery and don...