Our damp spring (which was actually a damp early summer as well) has really given us a bumper crop of flowers in the area.
The fabulous crepe myrtles all over town are always reliable summer bloomers, but this year, with the unaccustomed extra moisture, they've really outdone themselves. The pictures in this post were taken just in my neighborhood, but 'hoods all over town can boast similar crops.
In addition to their impressive courage in blooming throughout our hot summers, the variety of their coloration is a big reason they're so popular. My favorite color is the deep red, but I suspect they are the least robust of the varieties: you don't see many of them, and when you do, they don't seem to have as many blooms. I only found a couple of examples on my walks the last few days, and their blooms didn't compare favorably at all with their paler cousins, so I didn't take any pictures of them.
But, oh my gosh! the pinks...
...the lilacs...
...the whites...
...the purples...
...aren't they amazing?!
Here's a look at a whole tree, so you can see how absolutely loaded those branches are:
The whites deserve special mention, I think. They must be among the most robust, if not the most. (In our yard, we have a white and a pink and the white has 'way overshadowed its sib in the years since I planted them both at the same time.) There are quite a few yards in my neighborhood that look a little like they've seen some snow, the white blossoms are so prolific...
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| even after all those blooms have fallen, there are still plenty on the tree! |
