Lagerstroemia Summer Charm Tonto - Crape Myrtle

Invite Lagerstroemia 'Tonto' into your garden or onto your terrace: this variety is particularly robust and easy to grow in many regions. It is an adorable small tree with a compact habit, very floriferous, well adapted to small spaces and container gardening. It boasts a stunning dark fuchsia pink flowering that brings life to any setting from the beginning of July, and then for more than two months. They are also appreciated for their smooth, richly coloured bark that is ornamental all year round, as well as their beautiful autumn colours.

Lagerstroemia 'Tonto' belongs to the Lythraceae family. It is native to China and Japan. 'Tonto' is an excellent American hybridization resulting from a breeding program initiated in the late 1950s by Dr. Donald Egolf. It carries the genes of Lagerstroemia indica, which is native to China, and L. fauriei, native to Korea and Japan, which has passed on its good hardiness and natural resistance to fungal diseases.

'Tonto' is a multi-trunk small tree with a rounded, slightly spreading crown. It is of modest size, often considered dwarf, reaching about 3m (9.8ft) in height and 2.50m (8ft) in width when planted in the ground, under good conditions. In a container, it will remain smaller, about 1.50m (4.9ft) in height and 1m (3.3ft) in width. Its growth is fairly rapid. It starts flowering in July and continues until September. The large, branched clusters are composed of numerous small flowers carried by slender pedicels. Each flower has five undulate petals with a texture reminiscent of crepe fabric. They are grouped in dense, large panicles at the ends of the current year's branches, giving the shrub the appearance of a giant bouquet.

In 'Tonto', the flower buds open widely into intensely dark fuchsia pink flowers, with a few golden stamens adding a touch of light. The leathery and deciduous leaves start out bronze-red, then become dark green and shiny, often tinged with red-brown in summer, just before flowering. It consists of large ovate leaves, 8cm (3.1in) long, which take on beautiful orange and red hues in autumn before falling. Finally, and to end on a beautiful note, its bark is highly decorative, smooth, beige-brown washed with mouse grey, peeling off in coloured patches (cinnamon, faded red, old rose, cream).

Lagerstroemia is a small tree that, in its improved forms, deserves to be acclimated in colder areas, carefully choosing the variety and its location. Its hardiness and vigour will allow this, just like the varieties in the Summer Charm series. It looks great in a shrub bed or in a mixed hedge of various varieties and colours, or emerging from a mound of perennials. In autumn, it accompanies cotinus and deciduous euonymus, as colourful as itself. In a container on the terrace, it puts on a show while summer blooms fade.

NB: Karl Von Linne 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. We would like to point out that this tree produces fruits that have a narcotic effect if ingested.

Varietal creation in Indian Lilacs has long been a French specialty, especially in the southwest, with the two main hybridizers located in Perigord and Quercy. Other enthusiasts have embarked on the adventure, like Christian Gaurrat and Antoine Scrive in the Landes region.

About the cold resistance of Lagerstroemia: in 1955, Dr. John Creech from the American National Arboretum, accompanied by a team of botanists, discovered a new species endemic to the Japanese island of Yakushima, extremely hardy and resistant to fungal diseases: Lagerstroemia faurei. Hybridization with the much more ornamental but more delicate L. indica has given rise to hybrids that flower generously in most climates, resistant to diseases and hardy to -20°C (-4°F) (the stump regrowing in spring). They are called Lagerstroemia x egolfii.