Get it Growing: Your crape myrtle questions answered Heather Kirk-Ballard There’s a lot going on with crape myrtles this summer. I’ve gotten quite a few calls about these highly prized ornamental trees of the South. With all of the rain that we have had over the past month, we have already surpassed our annual average rainfall and we are only halfway through the year. Since January, we have received around 63 inches of rain. That’s keeping lawns saturated and making it difficult to get any garden work done, much less mowing lawns. With the rain, many plants have been able to grow. Others are beginning to suffer. Crape myrtles seem to be doing both in some cases.