Lagerstroemia, Crape Myrtle, Crepe Myrtle 'Red Rocket'

Mine is growing nicely in a pot on my patio. I'm in Phoenix, AZ where it's about 95 degrees now and the plant is thriving and blooming ve...Read Morery well following Spring pruning, though I'm told once real summer arrives (108-118 degrees), these don't do quite as well. In any case, the nursery who sold this Red Rocket (RR) to me said it is a dwarf variety of RR that reaches 3-4 feet tall at maturity. I've never heard of a dwarf RR Crape Myrtle. Is this possible or is he mistaken?

I planted 3 of these in my yard 10-15 years ago. They are all 20' tall now, and probably not more than 6' in diameter at the top. As matu...Read Morere trees, they have a strong, fairly narrow vase shape, with no weeping or arching branches that they had when younger, so they are well suited to small spaces. I have never trimmed mine, except to shape them nicely until they reached about 7-8', or to remove the occasional suckers, which haven't been many. At first, they seemed bushy, and I removed a lot of branches but after 6-8', I just let them go. They have required minimal maintenance since then. The red flowers are truly spectacular in color, but they don't bloom much unless I fertilize. They do not mildew much compared to other crepe myrtles I have, unless it rains a great deal.

The red of this one has just a hint of purple making it ruby red. A beautiful cultivar. I snapped one up at the home improvement store to...Read Moreday.Very happy with my find! 2010

2015 update: The two I planted have not grown especially fast but they are very tolerant of drought and neglect. I don't prune them at all and they are beginning to take on pleasing shapes. They are now 6 and 7 feet tall. Overall I am still happy with them.

I have 2 of these that were planted as 18" twigs 3 years ago. They are now over 6' tall and bloom profusely in my zone 6b location. The ...Read Morebronze fall foliage and berries are lovely.