welcome to Hort tube my name is Jim Putnam and this isn't a rapaho crepe myrtle this is the beautiful red flowering large growing Arapahoe crepe myrtle Arapaho can end up quite large this is a plant that can end up 20 feet and height and probably 15 feet and width at the top Arapahoe is a disease resistant National Arboretum introduction it's actually listed in zone six to nine most crepe myrtles are seven to nine so this one's definitely worth a try if you're in zone six pretty much all crepe myrtles that get any size to them are very fast growing this plant was actually cut down to about two feet in height in the container and it's already up to about four and a half feet or so in just a couple months so you can see this plant can grow about three feet in a single season easily crepe myrtles are definitely sun-loving plants we definitely want to get these dried out quickly in the morning crepe myrtles are susceptible to some powdery mildew although this is a very resistant variety that the National Arboretum introduced any of the crepe myrtles that have Indian names usually are fairly resistant to powdery mildew their National Arboretum introductions Catawba Natchez Muskogee I could go on and on they all have American Indian names the ones that are resistant to it so crepe myrtles are definitely going to be plants that need at least six hours of direct Sun and full Sun would be absolutely fantastic Arapahos gonna end up too large for your foundation if you're looking for a crepe myrtle to put on the corner of your foundation there's probably much better varieties you want to look for a semi dwarf this is definitely not a semi dwarf this one's gonna work great out in open space can actually become a small shade tree in time it gets tall enough and wide enough for that Arapaho has a lot of great qualities this was going to be a weeping variety it's going to have that traditional look that we get on crepe myrtles it has amazing bark in the future when they're young like this it just doesn't show up at some point this will start to flake off and it'll be a reddish color at the base of the plant in the future which is really quite striking in the winter then of course it has these red flowers on it it's not quite as red as dynamite is or red rocket that's the two that have been introduced in recent years that are definitely a little redder than this but this is the reddest of the varieties that the National Arboretum has done and it is really really beautiful it's almost a fuchsia red color it's really really quite striking I really like this variety you can see it from a mile away another feature on a rapaho is it has beautiful red stems and all the leaves have kind of a maroon red edging to them which probably doesn't show up on this video very well but that's also quite striking I've included planting instructions in the description of this video for woody trees and shrubs crape myrtles are really almost hard to kill when you're planting them unless you planted it way too deep and over mulch did or planted it in the area it stayed too wet all the time you're probably just not gonna have an issue on these mounting them up a little bit mulch them and then pull the mulch back away from the base of the trunk crepe myrtles are very drought tolerant it is unlikely if you're in an area to gets regular rainfall that you're gonna have a these die from drought but they are gonna underperform if they get dry especially in June and July and even late May as they're setting their flower buds this is a plant you're gonna want to keep a close eye on during that period of time if you see it wilting at all or any yellowing leaves on the interior of this plant you're definitely gonna want to drag a water hose to it and just drown the space around it and then let it drop become slightly dry again crepe myrtles are definitely on my fertilizing list in the late winter or early spring any kind of outdoor slow release fertilizer that last three to four months will be helpful in the growth and the flowering of these plants pruning is the hotly debated issue on crape myrtles you'll see a lot of landscapers and commercial settings and some homeowners copying them cutting these way back in the winter time to maybe eight or ten feet in height and then they'll come out and grow about three feet and they'll bloom with this beautiful perfect little canopy on top of them it looks great it does kind of shorten the life of the tree because the base of the trees gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger and then the top part is gonna keep these skinny little limbs with the flowers on it and eventually just gonna look terrible and you're gonna have to take it out in all likelihood or just let it grow at some point landscapers of course don't care they'll take them out replace them with a new plant great thing for them to be able to do with their businesses but as a homeowner if you're gonna keep a crape myrtle for the next 25 or 30 years you might want to pick one that fits the height requirement that you had we have crepe myrtles that only grow two feet tall up to crepe myrtles that grow 30 feet tall so there's one for you in all likelihood that you don't have to cut them back like that but like I say it's no big deal if that's what you want to do it does create a beautiful look to it but at some point your crape myrtle is gonna look odd like I said Arapaho is pretty disease resistant the main pest we're gonna have on these crepe myrtles is a few chewing insects and aphids are really our biggest problem there if the plants in open space and you can get some wind across it probably won't be that big of an issue if you get a fits on the flower buds and on the newest growth you can get what's called city mold my mold grows on the aphids excrement later in the summer and it can really make your crape myrtle quite ugly the leaves turn almost black with this growth on it which obviously blocks out the Sun and you know prevents the plant from feeding itself very well so keep an eye on them in the spring middle spring is typically when you're gonna see a phase and you do need to control those if you're getting those because they can cause some problems later in the summer crepe myrtles are considered to be deer resistant so what are you waiting for even you can grow the red flowering disease resistant beautiful Arapaho crape myrtle thank you for watching my video and if it was helpful please hit the like button and subscribe to my channel for future videos also comment below with any questions you have about crape myrtles thanks for watching you