Lagerstroemia indica Summer Charm Acoma - Crape Myrtle

The Lagerstroemia indica x fauriei 'Acoma' is another variety of the hybrid Indian Lilacs from the Summer Charm series, selected for its vigour, abundant flowering and resistance to powdery mildew. This one, of medium pruning, is adorned from mid to late summer with a profusion of frothy dazzling white clusters, highlighted by a beautifully purple foliage. Summer Lilacs are also appreciated for their smooth bark, richly coloured, ornamental all year round, as well as their beautiful autumn colours. These bushes love the heat but appreciate a little coolness in summer to support their flowering. This one will make a sensation when isolated in a small garden or in a pretty pot on the terrace.

The Lagerstroemia 'Acoma' is an excellent American acquisition from a hybridization program initiated in the late 1950s by Dr Donald Egolf. It has the genes of the Lagerstroemia indica, the Indian Lilac native to China, the L. fauriei, native to Korea and Japan, which has given it good hardiness and its natural resistance to cryptogamic diseases.

'Acoma', like all summer lilacs, belongs to the Lythraceae family. This small multi-trunk tree bears a rounded crown, a little spread out. Medium in size, it will reach about 3.50 m in height at ripeness, with a span of 3 m (9 ft 10 in), under good conditions. In a pot, it will remain more modest in size. Its growth is quite rapid. It blooms for about two months from July-August or September-October. The large inflorescences, in ramified clusters, are composed of very numerous small flowers carried by thin pedicels. Each flower has five very undulate petals, whose texture is reminiscent of crepe. They are gathered in large, dense panicles, at the ends of the year's branches.

In 'Acoma', the inflorescences, produced in abundance, measure up to 17 cm (6.7 in) long and 10 cm (3.9 in) wide. The pinkish-purple floral buds open widely into flowers of pure white, a few golden stamens adding a touch of light to the whole. The foliage, leathery and shiny, is born bronze-reddish, then becomes olive green, before turning burgundy at the height of summer. It consists of ovate leaves 3 to 4 cm (1.2 to 1.6 in) long, which take on lovely yellow and carmine red tones in the autumn, before falling. Finally, and to finish in style, its bark is very decorative, smooth, beige-brown washed with grey, reddish-brown, peeling off in coloured plates (cinnamon, faded red, old rose, cream).

Indian Lilacs prefer humid and hot climates. The summer lilac is a small tree that, in its improved forms, deserves to be acclimatized in the colder areas of our country, carefully choosing the variety and its location. Its hardiness and vigour allow it, like the varieties in the Summer Charm series. It is in isolation, near the house, that you will fully enjoy this plant's generosity. It will look good in a bush bed or in a mixed flowered hedge of different varieties and colours, or emerging from a mound of perennials. In the autumn, it accompanies the equally colourful cotinus and the deciduous spindle trees. In a pot on the terrace, it puts on a show when the summer flowerings are slowing down. 

NB: Karl Von Linnaeus named this tree to pay tribute to 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. We would like to point out that this tree produces fruits that have a narcotic action if ingested.

About the cold resistance of Lagerstroemia: in 1955, Dr. John Creech of the American National Arboretum, accompanied by a team of botanists, discovered a new species endemic to the Japanese island of Yakushima, extremely hardy, resistant to cryptogamic diseases: the Lagerstroemia faurei. Hybridization with the L. indica, infinitely more ornamental but more delicate, gave birth to hybrids that flower generously in most of our climates, resistant to diseases and hardy down to -20 °C (the stump resuming in the spring). They are called the Lagerstroemia x egolfii.