We had a Natchez that was at least 25' and more likely 30' feet tall, even with the roof peak of a single story house. We had to prune it out of the alley because it grew so far over the fence. It was planted 4' from the fence and was just too close. I'd say that width was 20' to 25'.

The house was only 20 years old and we don't know for sure when it was planted.

Ok, thank you! I think it will end up being too large. I'll keep looking ;)

I saw a pair of Natchez's right in front of a two story house that were taller than the peak of the house! I'm guessing they were probably more in the 35' range and roughly 30 years old.

Good to see you're doing your homework to find a CM that matures at the appropriate size. My neighbors have their yard guy commit crape murder on their Natchez's every winter to keep their size in check. Not a pretty sight. :^(

The ones at the Dallas Arboretum are ridiculously huge. I can't estimate but I bet they're more than 40 feet. There are some in the river walk in San Antonio that (if I remember right) are just as big or bigger.

Bressler, that makes me so sad!

I just hate seeing crape murder, especially on the larger varieties of CM's. I just can't bring myself to tell my neighbors that they've got it all wrong since they think their landscape guy hung the moon and all. Sadly, they're so ruined from years of this that they'd have to be cut down to stumps and allowed to regrow to look decent again.

I rail against the practice whenever possible though. A couple of years ago I was talking to another neighbor that has a beautiful 20-25' Natchez. She thought maybe it needed to be topped since that's what some neighbors were doing. I did manage to talk her out of that, at least for now, thankfully!

Yep, that's why I researched! Actually a salesman tried to sell it to me for a rather small space (12 feet wide and fairly close to the house). I questioned him because I knew they grew large, and he told me I could just keep it trimmed up. No, thank you! I'd rather find something that fits the space.

I'm looking at the Acoma now. It has the same weeping habit, and only gets 10' tall...supposedly!

My two Acoma crepe myrtles don't know how to read plant tags. I like them but have to really prune to keep them between 12'-15'. I don't know if it's the "everything grows bigger in Texas" thing or something else. Can't find it right not, but one site said the sizes quoted for crepe myrtle varieties were not based on eventual mature height, but on height after 10-yrs in the ground. Guess that is only OK if you move a lot???
My semidwarf 'Zuni' is almost twice as big as the tag indicated.

Bet we did read the same article, Roselee! I also wish that I'd followed John Dromgoole's advice and bought my so-called 'Muskogee' crepe myrtle when it was in bloom instead of in late fall. Two separate tags promised it was 'Muskogee' but it sure is not. By the time it established and had a good bloom period it was too late -has been ID'd as a 'Basham's Party Pink'. It's pretty, but sure isn't the color I wanted.

And we had about the same experience with Acoma and the so called 'dwarfs'! Acoma, I think, is still a good choice if you want a somewhat smaller crepe myrtle. It has very nice smooth bark and nice fall color.

I never thought of making sure they were blooming! I think I'll be going shopping soon to make sure I get the right ones. That also makes sense that they tag them at a 10 year size...well, it doesn't make sense, but now I understand why so many plants I get seem to be sized small on the tag.

I got a muskogee, only to discover it was a white variety in july. Seller did step up, but I had my son out there planting a tree in 109 temps. I wanted a muskogee because I have another that I love. I It’s 5 and at least 25 feet tall. planted 10 feet from edge of roof and had to start trimming back a little to keep it from rubbing at 3 year. This year the lower branches are above roof enough that I may not need to trim. (one story) btw it absolutely loved the heat,didn’t just survive being planted durring a heat wave, it had new growth and blooms in two weeks. 100+ days the whole time.