Black Diamond® Blush™ Crape Myrtle

Blush Crape Myrtle (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.

It's 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!

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.

The deeply colored foliage emerges almost black in appearance. The color stays true all season long, and its incredible flowering display lasts for months.

This is a great choice to polish up the presentation of mature, or "inherited" plantings. Fix up your fixer-upper with Blush Crape Myrtle.

Blush Crape Myrtle is a very effective flowering privacy screen. Invite your friends to swim without worrying about the nosy neighbor.

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!

Entertain in style with these versatile and easy-care shrubs. Use them throughout your landscape.

Black Diamond Crape Myrtles are easy care, dependable and disease resistant. Blush is more resistant to powdery mildew than many other Crapes.

We know you'll fall in love with the beauty this shrub brings to your landscape. Order Blush Crape Myrtle from the experts at Nature Hills today.

How to Use Black Diamond® Blush™ Crape Myrtle in the Landscape

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.

It looks showy and sweet for most of the year. Even the smooth bark is pretty, for heaven's sakes!

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 Bearrs Lime tree kept in up to 20-inch containers.

These attractive shrubs will effortlessly jazz up anything you might have going on in your landscape. Look up the definition of the word "easy"...you'll see Blush listed.

Add several of these shrubs for a lovely presentation. They can be grown in large containers, or in the ground when the winters aren't too cold.

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.

Enjoy a series of them as high-style, flowering privacy around your pool deck or property line. Create an outdoor Yoga studio with flowering walls.

Plant them 12 feet apart on center, measuring from the center of one to the center of the next. Stagger a zigzagging second row if you want to see faster results!

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.

Two-thirds of your yard could be designated as the party zone that lives large. The other third of the lot becomes a quiet respite for "hammock time". Create a special, wandering path to get to your personal getaway.

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.

Plant several of them two feet apart for a low, flowering hedge along your walkway. Trim them to four-inches high in early spring each year.

#ProPlantTips for Care

In Zone 6, Blush should be considered a perennial. You'll cut it down to the ground each spring.

New growth will develop from the roots. It will grow and flower as a shorter plant that season.

Even 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 as a perennial with new growth from the roots.

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.

Plant 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 branches.

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 soakings 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.

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.

This is a simple shrub to grow into a beautiful, healthy statement piece. Order your Blush Crape Myrtle from the expert growers at Nature Hills today!