mildew on crape myrtle

I was walking through the nursery parking lot the other morning. I noticed one of our large old crape myrtles hade turned silver. One of the problems with crape myrtle is the problem of getting powdery mildew. This turns the foliage silver grey. It can get so bad it will defoliate the tree.

Many years ago when the parking lot was developed we moved some old crape myrtle to the edge of the parking lot. As near as I can tell they were planted sometime in the 1920’s. They are impressive trees with large trunks and knarled branching.

However of all the crape myrtle we have in the parking lot they are the only two with powdery mildew. All of the newer plants are almost perfectly clean. They are all hybrid varieties that have come out of USDA breeding with one of the goals being mildew resistance

In the lot we have Tuscarora, a coral red; Tuskegee, a watermelon red; Natchez, white; Muskogee a light lavender pink. These are all large growing varieties to about 20’ unpruned. In addition we have Acoma another white growing to about 12’ and spreading; Pecos a medium pink growing to 12’ and Zuni growing to 12’.

All the crape myrtles we carry are chosen for mildew resistance. So if you are interested in adding crape myrtle to your garden come in and check out the mildew resistant varieties we carry.

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