Sunday, August 06, 2006

Crape Myrtle

crape myrtle

Although the dogwood is the official flowering tree of North Carolina, you'd never know it this time of year! Almost every business, home, and sidestreet has been planted with at least ONE crape myrtle. These are beautiful trees, if a bit overplanted!! and come in endless color varieties. This pinkish magenta crape myrtle resides on my property and is only about 5 feet tall and is in full bloom right now! I had to take a really close look to see the dozens of blooms that make up the flower stalk.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

ooooo...Lin, you're venturing out of the soft mid-range colors and into some gorgeous, saturated yummy deep ones - these flowers are just lovely! I really like those little touches of vivid magenta- great job!

picklesandroses.blogspot.com said...

Every city in the South must be overplanted with crepe myrtle. We certainly have a lot around here and the pink ones seem to do best. You created a lovely rendering of the blossom. Sometimes I cut some for a vase but when they start to fade, they are a mess to clean up.

Anonymous said...

It is beautiful Lin. I have one in my yard, and rarely go out to paint the gifts that have been given me. You caught the color of mine perfectly.

Teri said...

Oh Lin, this is gorgeous!! Wish we could grow them in the north country. Your color capture is is just perfect!! Gosh, you are getting so good at this.

Jana Bouc said...

Pretty, light and breezy looking. I've never seen one of these (until your painting). THere aren't many flowering trees here at all. It must be beautiful to see those everywhere.

Terri said...

I think this is exceptionally beautiful Lin! Those fussy flowers would not be easy to draw and you've done them brilliantly. Crape Myrtles are one of my favourite small trees - lovely bark in winter, flowers in spring, colour in Autumn...mmmmm. I've wanted one for years, and now I finally have one as a feature tree in my front garden. Can't wait for it to leaf up and get some flowers. It's still too cold here right now, so all I have are the remnants of the last flowers. :o) I don't know why, but these flowers always make me think of pink popped corn for some reason. :o)

Clare said...

My absolute most favourite tree!!! Sadly I can not seem to grow it out here in the Aussie bush. Great drawing Lin.