Woofie, in response to a question by Dave on the Black Diamond series, I looked around a lot for info. I found this for Black Diamond....
http://www.blackdiamondblooms.... and the info below from The grumpy gardener at Southern Living Magazine.
I also found this to be very interesting:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2Use...
It seems that Ebony Flame Crape Myrtle was developed at Univ of Mississippi. No one seems to know quite when the name Black Diamond came into play in conjunction with this plant, but there are instances of this plant being sold with 2 tags ....Ebony Flame and an added tag from Berry Nursery with the trademarked Black Diamond name. The USDA release noted above explains why jberry33 was not granted a patent.
F. Stanley
Stores here in Kansas City are selling Black DIamond crepemyrtles, is this a good specimen for this area? There is very little information with this shrub.
May 1, 2013 at 10:07 am
Steve Bender
My information is that ‘Black Diamond’ is an illegal release by someone who didn’t own the patent. That’s why you can’t find any info about it. I can’t say whether it’ll be hardy in Kansas City, because apparently nobody knows.
http://thedailysouth.southernl...
