Black Diamond® Blush™ Crape Myrtle Shrub

Whisper-pink Blush™ Crape Myrtle shrub (Lagerstroemia BLACK DIAMOND 'Blush') makes a fantastic statement in the landscape, no matter where you place it! Fetching, pale-pink blooms light up the black foliage from early summer through fall.

The charming blossoms are held in large clusters, and borne above the black foliage. Your shrub will be covered in these romantic, soft drifts of color for months each year! The deeply colored foliage emerges almost black in appearance. The color stays true all season long, and its incredible flowering display lasts for months!

It looks showy and sweet for most of the year. Hummingbirds and butterflies will love your yard, but you won't have to worry about deer having the same interest. Even the smooth bark is pretty for winter interest! Black Diamond® Crape Myrtles are easy-care, dependable, and disease-resistant. Blush™ is more resistant to powdery mildew than other Crape Myrtle varieties! Hardy throughout USDA growing zones 6 to 10, Blush™ grows 10-12 feet in height and spreads up to 8 feet wide.

Planting and Application:

Blush™ is so versatile and easy to grow! You can enjoy it full-size as a "garden room divider" to create personalized outdoor spaces or retreats. Imagine this as a backdrop for on-pointe social media photos. Everyone looks good in pink! Entertain in style with these versatile and easy-care shrubs. Use them throughout your Cottage gardens, front yard foundation plantings, and as garden focal points.

It also handles pruning like a champ and can be easily kept at a gorgeous three-foot flowering hedge. What a friendly way to define your property! Blush™ Crape Myrtle is a very effective flowering privacy screen. Invite your friends to swim without worrying about the nosy neighbor. Think of Blush™ as a living green wall. You'll triple the feel of your space if it is used to divide your narrow, long lot into thirds.

Expand the mulch to include a curved bed 15 feet from the corner of your house. Use Blush™ as an anchor in your foundation planting. These attractive shrubs will effortlessly jazz up anything you might have going on in your landscape, they're low-maintenance and look great grown naturally. Repeat their use along the length of your perennial bed for a bold backdrop. Or, use them all on their own in a special shrub border.

This is a great choice to polish up the presentation of mature, or "inherited" plantings. Fix up your fixer-upper with Blush™ Crape Myrtle. Charming Blush™ Crape Myrtle coordinates beautifully with any other plant, as well. As a bet, just try to find a color or form of leaf, flower, berry, or branch that wouldn't work very well with Blush™.

Want to make something easy and "tropical-looking" happen on your patio? Try it in a large container for an instant eye-catcher. It can be kept within a 12-inch pot...and remember, it's always 5:00 somewhere! Arrange your container-grown Blush™ Crape Myrtle as a backdrop plant behind other container gardens. Pair it with an Improved Dwarf Meyer Lemon or Bearss Lime tree kept in up to 20-inch containers.

Consider using these sweet plants as small-scale, multi-trunked trees. Using sharp loppers, prune the lower branches off of the trunks. Expose more of the trunk and you'll turn the top canopy leaves and flowers into a head. With the dark leaves and the bright white blooms, this would be quite a nice contrast. A little training would give you the upright growth that makes it look more like a tree than a shrub.

• Heart-Melting Blush Pink Blooms
• Reliable Black Foliage Contrasts Beautifully
• Valuable Nectar Source for Butterflies & Hummingbird-Magnet
• Works in Containers & As Specimen Plantings
• Flowering Hedge or "Living Wall" in Outdoor Garden Rooms

#ProPlantTips for Care:

In Zone 6, Blush™ should be considered a perennial. You'll cut it down to the ground each spring. Northern gardeners in Zones 3, 4, and 5 can easily grow them in seasonal containers. Overwinter your container in an unheated garage or shed and treat it as a perennial with new growth from the roots. New growth will develop from the roots and it will grow and flower as a shorter plant that season.

Plant Blush™ Crape Myrtles in full sun with at least six hours of direct sunlight a day. If you can, try to provide morning sun, which will quickly dry morning dew from the foliage. Situate your shrub in well-drained soil. Create a raised bed for planting, or use them in containers, if you have soil that remains wet for a long time after rain.

Crapes love good air circulation. Plant Blush™ at least 15 feet away from structures, so the air can reach all the way through every branch. Apply a three-inch layer of pine straw or pine bark mulch. Pull the mulch at least six inches away to ensure that the mulch doesn't touch the stems.

Young shrubs should be well-hydrated with regular watering every few days. You can move to a weekly soaking after a month. Do this for several months, if not a bit longer. Technically, Blush™ Crape Myrtles will develop a moderate resistance to drought; so go ahead and enjoy your vacation! But...just know that you'll get better blooms and stronger performance if you apply supplemental water when it's dry.

Apply an organic, slow-release fertilizer designed for flowering plants in early spring. Follow application rates on the label. Avoid lawn fertilizers that are nitrogen-rich, as they will reduce the amount of bloom.

Prune in early spring by removing old wood, and eliminating branches that cross over one another. You'll also hard prune to control size at this time. Deadhead after flowers after they fade to encourage a rebloom later on.

Although deer seldom severely damage Crape Myrtles, you should apply repellent if you live in an area with heavy deer pressure. Deer are curious and they are hungry. Reapply according to the label directions.

• Care-Free In Full Sun
• Becomes Moderately Drought Tolerant Once Established
• Can Be Controlled for Size With Hard Pruning in Spring
• Improved Cultivar is Resistant to Powdery Mildew, Pests & Diseases
• Deer Don't Prefer the Taste

This is a simple shrub to grow into a beautiful, healthy statement piece! We know you'll fall in love with the beauty this shrub brings to your landscape. Order Black Diamond® Blush™ Crape Myrtle from the experts at Nature Hills today!