Crape Myrtle's: Newer Varieties?

Harlingen, TX

I guess 'newer' is a relative term but I am referring to 'Dynamite' and 'Bradberry's Wine'

Does anyone have either of these? I am guess that 'Bradberry's Wine' is either newer or less common because I can't seem to find any information on it besides the patent that was filed. Not even Dave's garden has a page for that one. Dynamite on the other hand is a little more common these days.

I have two 'Dynamite' crape myrtle's and one 'Bradberry's Wine'
The Dynamite's seem to be much less vigorous and slow growing. Both of them were in dryer areas though so I can't say that for certain but even now that I am taking extra good care of them, they just don't seem to be doing well at all. The Bradberry's Wine crape myrtle has very nice (almost glossy) really dark green foliage and has done very well. The new growth this year has just exploded. The Dynamite's have pretty foliage when they are healthy, nice red tinted leaves (smaller than other crape myrtle's) but the foliage really has not come back this year yet. I can still see the dead branches from last years growth while all my others have bushed out already.

I decided that the two dynamite trees should be switched so that the nicer shaped one can be seen more easily so I did transplant them this year (not good for a struggling plant, I know) but I took good care of them, put them in the same miracle grow tree soil that my super healthy plant is growing in and watered them in with a transplant solution for a couple days and have kept them moist for the rest of the time. Another thing I noticed was that the dynamite trees had lots of little fibrous roots but no thick strong roots on the plants which is odd since they have been growing in the ground a year. I just pulled weeds from around the 'Bradberry's Wine' crape myrtle and saw roots the size of my little finger or slightly larger.

Sorry for the long explanations but could it just be that the dynamite plants are not very vigorous growers? Is there more I can do to help them along or just keep the soil moist? What is most strange to me is that the Bradberry's Wine plant has nearly doubled in height while the dynamite plants are actually a little shorter this year because the new growth has not even over-taken the dead twigs from when they went dormant in winter.

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