Crepe Myrtle Lagerstroemia Tuscarora

Tuscarora is one of the American bred Lagerstroemia indica x fauriei hybrids, and it holds an upright vase shaped frame rather than the low sprawling bush habit of the older indica types. Flowering is coral to watermelon pink, carried in crinkled panicles through the hottest weeks of summer, and the trunks shed each year to a mottle of fawn and light cinnamon. That pairing of hot season flower and clean winter bark is why it turns up on nature strips and median plantings across the eastern states.

Heat, sun and air movement

Tuscarora flowers hardest where summers are long and hot, which covers most of Queensland, western Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and the inland towns of Victoria and New South Wales. Cool coastal gardens still grow it, but the panicles come later and thinner. Full sun is not negotiable. Soil can be ordinary provided it drains, and on heavy clay it pays to plant high on a raised mound rather than into a sunken hole that holds water. Water is low to moderate once the roots have run out into the surrounding soil.

The failure mode is a shaded, still corner. Squeezed against a fence under taller trees, or set into a courtyard with no air moving through it, Tuscarora sets few flowers and the new growth greys over with powdery mildew. The fauriei parentage gives it more mildew resistance than the old indica seedlings, but resistance is not immunity and shade plus stagnant air will beat it. It also leafs out very late in spring, well after everything around it, which every year convinces somebody theirs has died.

Summer flower where the pears give spring

Nothing else in this batch is in full flower in February, so if the job is a verge or driveway tree the honest comparison is against the spring blossom trees. Ornamental Pear Capital gives white flower on bare wood in early spring and holds a far narrower column, so it wins where the gap between house and fence is tight and the display can happen in September. Tuscarora is the pick where you want colour in the months you are actually outside, and where the mottled bark will be seen at close range. For a native with a hot season display, Brachychiton Jerilderie Red flowers red on bare branches but needs considerably more room.

Late winter pruning, and why not to lop it

Crepe myrtle flowers on wood grown in the current season, so prune in late winter before the buds move. Take out crossing and inward growth, shorten the previous season's flowered tips back to a pair of buds, and lift the lower limbs if you want the trunks on show. What it will not forgive is having the head cut back to stubs, which returns whippy shoots, flower heads that flop in summer rain, and a frame that never recovers. Feed once in early spring with a balanced slow release fertiliser, going easy on the nitrogen, which pushes leaf at the expense of panicles, and rub off basal suckers as they appear. More of the range sits under crepe myrtle.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 19 sizes, from 200mm up to 900L, priced from $35.95 to $10069.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to choosing and caring for crepe myrtles.