Those who know me very well understand that I love crepe myrtles. They are one of my favorite kinds of plants and I don't think they can be planted too frequently. I have over 50 crepe myrtles planted all over our ranch here. I even have some planted deep in the woods.

Here is one of my favorites: Biloxi.



It doesn't look its best right now given that we're in such a terrible and historic drought. Anyway, it throws huge clusters of purple blooms.



The fragrance could be described as being similar to a very powerful lilac. It's wonderful and walking past it is almost overwhelming with its amazing fragrance. Definitely in my top 10 of all the plants I have!!

I love crepe Myrtles too but only have about 6 plantes on my property. I had no idea there was a fragrant one.

Quite a few of them are fragrant. I think it's the fauriei species that has the fragrance. It seems that all the indicas have no fragrance.

Dave do you know the hardiness zone range for the faurieri species?

The U.S. National Arboretum says they are reliably hardy to zone 6.

Where do you find the faurieri species. I did an internet search and did not come up with much.

You have to know the variety. Crepe myrtles basically come in the L. indica or L. fauriei flavors. There are a few L. indica x fauriei crosses out there, too.

Muskogee is a pretty well known cross. Biloxi is a cross, too, I believe. Appalachee is a fauriei.

The extra tall ones are generally faurieis.

I don't know where they can be ordered, though. I have collected mine from various places and people. There is a nursery in Tennessee Colony, TX that sold us many hundreds of them for our local master gardeners plant sale last year, and I had quite a few left over from that.

In fact, the Biloxi pictured above came from them.

Darn just one zone off, well I guess your just gonna have to program smellavision

My crepe myrtles are just now starting to bloom. The first year or two they didn't have a scent but the light pink one and now the red one does have a scent. The light pink one smells the strongest here. I have no idea which variety they are got them at WM during a markdown sale and all it was was Crepe Myrtle and the color. I currently have 3 of them the third is a darker pink.

Well at least I now have some names to search for. My kids wanted to know why I was outside last night in the almost dark sniffing all the crepe myrtles. None of mine I have any scent.

Dave, you had me at the lilac scent. It's one of my top 5, maybe even top 3 scents. I have even been able to grow a lilac down here and it's healthy but I'm afraid it won't bud or bloom in my lifetime.

If you ever find a nursery that carries Biloxi, please let us know as I would love to buy one. I love the color as well. Just like a lilac I only have the watermelon pink and white here.

vic

Vic, I may just have to root some so I can send a couple your way!!

Oh, I would be ever so grateful

Why is that when I search for crepe Myrtle Biloxi all of the results are for pink blooming trees?

That's a good question. Don't tell me that my Biloxi's aren't Biloxi because that would mean the tree company we got them from was wrong, and that would be a big problem for me.

Now this has got my doubting whether what I have is Biloxi or not.

Wow, now I want one, too!

Creepie Myrtles grow just fine in a tropical place. Now I'll get hauled into jail for trespassing in folks' yards to sniff.

Still can't figure out if Crepe Myrtle will grow here. I've never seen one in this area.

Dave, would you call Biloxi a purple? I'm seeing white, pink, fuschia, and purple here. Your photo is a bit ambiguous to my eyesight.

Is it fragrant all the time, or sometimes, like only morning, only afternoon?

Are you sorry you posted about this plant??

Well, the tree that I am talking about in this thread is definitely purple (or lavender) in color!

coconut said:Are you sorry you posted about this plant??

The seller of this plant is going to hear an earful from me when I see them next!