You could winter a crepe myrtle in a garage, but I don't think that they would take kindly to being brought inside a heated home for several months.

That's what I thought. I would think though that the garage would be too cold. The garden center manager said she'd give me half off something else if it didn't make it through next year. What is the highest number zone they grow in?

Your garden center manager gets the best out of that deal, lol! Quite a little racket.

Some crape myrtles are hardier than others. Do you happen to know what varieties she is selling? Even the tender ones can take sub-freezing temperatures, but may get killed back to the ground if exposed to the teens. Containerized plants would be more sensitive to damage, of course.

Most crapes are perfectly hardy in zone 7, even 6. Insulating a plant in your garage would be something that could easily be done, if you want to go to that trouble.

It was somewhat inexpensive for the size. $13.99. It's a pink velour hardy to 0. Though at a six to twelve foot high mature height I can't imagine it as a houseplant.

At the rate I'm going I'm going to have to kick my husband out of his garage. I already have a japanese maple going in it this coming winter. :~) I really need a greenhouse.

I had thought about putting it by the patio doors in the basement. It's a beautiful foliage plant even without the blossoms.

I planted two 40 inch crape myrtles last summer, Dynamite and Pink Velour, about 6 feet apart.
The Dynamite was killed back to the ground but has regrown to about 30 inches, no blooms yet though.
The top 12 inches of the Pink Velour died back but regrew and is blooming.
Some of the die back may have been due to the fact that they had started to leaf-out in the early warm weather and then were hit with the subsequent freeze this spring. We'll have to see how they do through a second winter.
In your zone 5 I wouldn't be too optimistic unless you can give some winter protection as mentioned. But I don't think I would keep them in a heated space in the house.
I agree that the Pink Velour foliage is very attractive, more so than on Dynamite.

Right now, drill more drainage holes in the bottoms of pots that are two sizes larger than the pots your Crape myrtles were sold in. Remove the Cms from their pots and check the rootball, if the roots have become rootbound cut them straight down from top to bottom using four slices evenly spaced around the rootball. Then transplant them into the larger pots. Be sure to mix some good quality non-burn, slow release fertilzer like Osmokote into the backfill potting soil, unless your are using potting soil that already contains fertilizer.

Next dig planting holes and drop the newly transplanted CMs into the ground in an area with full sun exposure. Maybe on the south side of your house with fairly good sun from dawn to dusk; if there is no exposure like that at your place, sink the pots in either the northwestern or northeastern corners of your lot. Do not dead head for reblooming this year, so that the trunks can thicken up and harden off in a manner which will make them better able to handle their dormant period this coming winter.

Daily watch the folliage. At the first sign of leaf wilt, begin watering them several times each day untill the leaves look healthy again. Otherwise, only water when the potting soil in the pots seem dry about an inch down.

If later in the year, when your Fall temps break; if the predicted freeze is expected to be a light freeze. water them well again just prior to the freeze hitting. Repeat this procedure with them until the forecasters begin predicting hard freezes that could dip below 27 degrees.

If by this time the Cm has experienced some light freezes it should be just about fully dormant. Even if it does not seem that far dormant, dig up the pots and put them in your garage. During days that are above freezing move them just outside again. But make sure to put them back into the garage over the periods of times when temps are expected to drop below freezing.

Toward the end of winter when the temps begin to play around the 30 to 50 degree temp ranges again begin to harden them off for their outside move. Keep moving them back into the garage, though, whenever the temps are forecast to drop into the lower 30s and could easily drop to freezing even for short periods. But make sure to bring them out for ever increasing daytime periods which promise to stay above freezing.

Once the last threat of a possible late freeze period ends; that could be as late as the near the end of April or later in your area, plant your Cm in the soil where you want them to grow. That must be an area that gets either full sun or full day dappled sun.

Once they are fully leaf out again and have completely broken dormancy, prune away of last winter's dead branches or seed pods which is still on the shrubs. To do that cut each dead part either all the way back to the nearest trunk it attaches to or back to the first set of three leaves on the branch.

For the first three years they are planted in the soil, let them bloom naturally whenever they want and do not do dead heading to try to force the CM to rebloom again more quickly. Only in the summer after their third year should it be safe to begin deadheading spent blooms before the seeds can fully develop. On each branch which has spent blooms simply prune back to the first set of three leaves. You can do this all summer long to encourage your Cms to bloom more often. Just be sure you stop doing that about 6 weeks prior to your first expected or predicted drop in temp down to freezing.

Next winter just before the first predicted light freeze water them very well just prior to the temps dropping. On the other hand just prior to the first time the temps are predicted to drop down to a hard freeze; water the Cms well, and cover their rootballs with a layer of 6 inches of shreaded cedar bark mulch.

In the following spring be sure to pull that mulch back at least 4 to 6 inches away from each cMs trunks. Following that, as soon as the temps remain above freezing and the CM has fully leafed out, select the strongest,thickest, and straight up growing trunks to become the number of trunk legs that you desire each of your CMs to have. Prune all the other thinner and weaker growing trunks out. Follow that by pruning away any of the side branches on any of your desired to remain trunks. Prune enough of the leaves and side-branches off to clean the trunks up the the height you desire for your Cms. After that go through the remaining canopy of your Cms. With each branch cut back to the first set of three leaves any dead wood, dried seed heads which remain from the previous year.

Never do a Crape myrtle "Murder" pruning on your CMs. If you do not know what that means, simply do a google search for explanations of that outdated type of pruning.
Once your Cms grow to the top heights you desire of 8 to 10 feet, simply during the above describe prune times, prune them in a manner which takes each branch, pruned one at a time, back to the lowest set of three leaves that are about a foot or two lower than what your want the over height for the shrub to grow in the summer. Every year thereafter follow that same kind of pruning practice.

Thank you all for your responses. Katrina, what a great and detail answer. I appreciate that. Now I have to go container shopping. :~)

I was really hoping to hear, oh yea, we put ours in the house all the time though lol

I was thinking of spots to place it during the year and thought of something I hadn't before. We have a place outside our bathroom window in which the heat from the furnace blows out and it's apparently MUCH warmer than the rest of the house. I have a honeysuckle vine in that area that never was anything but green all winter long. Do you think that might be another option?

I live in Columbus Ohio and I have grown Hopi, and Pecos Crape Myrtles for a few years. (Just moved and took some with me). Mine were fairly young, only got to around 5 feet high, would have some damage during the winter, but would regrow the next year. It seemd as they got older there was less dieback and more regrowth. Also right down the street there is a pink crape myrtle that is about eight or ten feet high, and the same around. It looks like a Hopi, but I am not sure. It has had hardly anydie back at all the last few years..and looks spectacular with it's neon pink blooms when nothing else is blooming late august.

A few miles away there are some bright red crape myrtles growing. These are pruned and limbed up and are small trees about 15 feet high-with somewhat of the size and form of mimosa trees. These things are huge for here and I was shocked to see them. Again they were bright red and stood out when nothing else was blooming(tree or shrub wise). I wish I knew what they were-they were beautiful and had to be hardy to get that big. I would buy one in an instant.

The trouble with growing crapes where they're not really hardy is that there will be a winter, eventually, where they die back, no matter what. I had a lovely white one that was 15' tall when we had a bad winter; it had been growing well for 5 or 6 years with no problem before that. The following summer it did not start to leaf out until July 4. I'd have removed it, because it really did seem to be dead, but I was traveling and otherwise occupied that spring.

Incorporating a plant in your garden that's 15 x 8 feet one year and 14 inches tall the next is a little tricky; and not everyone wants to look at the beautiful - but apparently dead - branches of a crape all through May & June. You are almost better off growing it as a "die back" shrub, although I think that's a shame too, since you won't get the wonderful peeling bark and the muscular branch structure of a normal crape.
Believe me, if you mange to keep it going for 5 or 6 years, you *will* eventually lose at least the top to frost. Lowe's is not offering a full refund, and there's a reason for that.

^^ Those are good points. And I should have mentioned that I lived in the middle of town in a somewhat 'protected' area. Also I only grew mine as shrubs, expecting that they would get hit bad in a bad winter. And those red tree-form ones I saw will surely get hit eventually. But they were so beautiful I would almost think it would be worth it to have them anyway.*sigh*

I agree, it's worth it - they just need care in siting, so that the gap that's left when they die down isn't too ... disturbing. I kept mine, and have added a few more.