Lagerstroemia indica La Fayette - Crape Myrtle

The Lagerstroemia indica La Fayette is a very pretty variety of Indian Lilac, floriferous in summer, offering a lovely pastel pink colour, slow growth and modest stature. At the end of the season, after a long summer flowering, its shiny dark green foliage is adorned with flamboyant tones. This moderately hardy bush has all the qualities for the ornamentation of small gardens and the terrace. It will flourish in full sun, in a fertile, light, not too dry soil.

The Indian Lilac 'La Fayette' belongs to the Lythraceae family, just like its ancestor the Lagerstroemia indica native to China. This bush has a bushy and ramified habit from the base, with a rounded, slightly spread crown. It will reach on average 2.50 m (8 ft 2 in) in height at maturity, for a spread of 1.50 m. Its growth is quite slow. It chooses the beginning of July to start its flowering, which will continue until September. The rather airy inflorescences are compound by thin pedicels each bearing a flower with five very undulate petals, whose texture reminds that of a crepe. 

In 'La Fayette', the pedicels and floral buds are pinkish, then they bloom widely into lavender pink flowers quickly becoming white. The foliage, tough and deciduous, is born bronze-red, then becomes dark green and shiny. It is composed of small ovate leaves, which take lovely orange or coppery hues in the autumn, depending on the climate. Finally, and to finish in beauty, its bark is decorative, smooth, beige striateions with grey, red-brown, peeling off in variously coloured plates (cinnamon, faded red, old pink, cream).

Preferring the humid and hot South Atlantic to the dry and windy Mediterranean, it is a small tree that deserves to be acclimated in the colder zones of our country, carefully choosing the variety and its location. It is perfect in isolation, near the house, so that you will be able to fully enjoy its generosity. It will look good in a bush bed, a flowered hedge, or emerging from a mound of perennials. Compose a bed like a bouquet, with Nepeta, Salvia sclarea or jamensis, Aster laevis. In the autumn, it accompanies the cotinus and the deciduous euonymus, as colourful as itself. In a large pot on the terrace, it puts on a show as the summer flowerings are slowing down.

NB: Karl Von Linnaeus named this tree to honour his friend Magnus Von Lagestroem (1696 – 1759), who had sent it to him from India for identification. Originally, this tree was used to decorate Chinese temples. This tree produces fruits that have a narcotic action in case of ingestion.