"Paul Paulsen" wrote in message
news:SBwLc.156006$Oq2.59956@attbi_s52...
On recent drives to Mountain Home, Arkansas and to the Great Smoky
Mountains
Nat'l Park I saw some beautiful plants which I had not seen before.
1) The first one seemed to be some type of locust tree with numerous
pink or light purple blossoms. Some were very large and others almost
looked
like a bush. These seemed common along the roadsides.
2) The second were even more pretty with large clumps of blossoms at
the
ends of each branch. Colors? I saw white, pink, red, deep red, and purple.
One of the locals said this was myrtle.
Please let me know what these were and what the typical growing zones are
for plants.
Thanks in advance.
Paul
Northern IL



Lagerstroemia indica, aka crepe myrtle, and they are usually only hardy in
zones 7+ although a few cold hardy versions are being bred and released.
They probably will only stay shrub sized in cold zones though, and I don't
think anyone colder than zone 6a has reported a lot of success with them
overwintering.