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However, your Crape Myrtle will look much different during the fall and winter months. If you’re not familiar with what Crape Myrtles look like year-round, you may be wondering what to expect from yours when the leaves start to fall. The current plantation landscape is centered on a large pond that features a small island centered with a gazebo accessed by a bridge. To the rear of the main house is the oldest structure on the grounds. Now known as the General's Store, this was where General Bradford lived while the main house was being built. Currently it is used as the gift shop, laundry facilities, plantation offices and guest breakfast spot.[4] To the south is another structure that houses a restaurant.
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If you don’t think that your Crape Myrtle is being affected by any of these, you may just need to have some patience. Different trees bloom at different times depending on the variety, and there are many environmental factors that can impact when your Crape decides to grace you with flowers. Finally, summer is also when some pests and other infections are in full swing. Fungal infections like leaf spots can impact your Crape Myrtle’s health and stunt flower growth.
Home Features
The reason she did what she did was to get work back inside the house. Only Sara and her two daughters ate the cake, and all died from the poison. Chloe was then supposedly hanged by the other slaves, and thrown into the Mississippi River, either as punishment or to escape punishment by Clark Woodruff for harboring her. Possibly the most well known of the Myrtles' supposed ghosts, Chloe (or Cloe)[5] was reportedly a slave owned by Clark and Sara Woodruff. After being caught, either by Clark or Sara Woodruff, one of her ears was cut off, and she wore a green turban to hide it. It would take until the 1970s when Myrtles Plantation was purchased by the Meyers family, that its reputation as a haunted house would come about.
Myrtles Plantation: The South’s Spookiest House
So, there’s less chlorophyll in the leaves to create the vibrant green color we typically see. As the summer months wind down, your Crape Myrtle will slow down and stop blooming. When fall rolls around, you’ll probably see that some leaves may begin to change color. Depending on which variety you have, you may notice varying shades on your foliage. These variations make the Crape Myrtle all the more vivid and lively during the fall. Fall is the time of year when so much of our landscape begins to change.
Is The Myrtles Plantation House Really Haunted?
You’ll learn what to expect from these bountiful bloomers and why they’re beloved focal points in so many landscapes all year long. Marilyn Monroe lived in her Brentwood home in Los Angeles for about six months before her life came to a tragic end in 1962. Although Monroe lived in 43 different homes in her lifetime, this was the only one she actually bought and chose on her own. She reportedly purchased it after her psychiatrist advised her to "put down some roots." In 1834, Woodruff sold the Myrtles Plantation to one Ruffin Gray Stirling. Stirling not only remodeled the house but also renamed the plantation after the crepe myrtle trees that grew on the property.
Day Tours
After thousands of landscape design projects, we’ve narrowed down our 5 best flowering trees for Southern California properties. However, you’ll often enjoy a lovely winter display from the barren tree’s trunk and peeling bark. You’ll probably also notice an abundance of dried-out seed pods on the barren limbs. Some people like the way they look, but you can certainly clip them off if you don’t. Chloe supposedly baked a cake for one of the two daughters containing extract of boiled and reduced oleander leaves, which are extremely poisonous.
The Myrtles Plantation's Restaurant 1796 moves property forward while paying homage to its past - The Advocate
The Myrtles Plantation's Restaurant 1796 moves property forward while paying homage to its past.
Posted: Wed, 20 Feb 2019 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Andrew Nicolle/FlickrThe Myrtles has been featured on several ghost-hunting shows in recent decades. Some people claim to have seen young girls in old-style clothing in the windows. Others say that they’ve caught glimpses of Woodruff’s children appearing in the mirror near the room where they died. That year, she took a photo of the property to help get an insurance policy for the house. The photo was quickly forgotten until three years later when a researcher asked to use it for a postcard.
Tips to Encourage More Blooms from Your Crape Myrtle This Year

According to this story, Winter’s ghost relives his last moments by loudly staggering through the house’s entrance and running up the stairs to the 17th step where he allegedly met his end. For starters, guests at Myrtles Plantation reported hearing strange noises. Others saw ghostly apparitions, often of a young girl wearing a turban. Corey Balazowich/FlickrThe supposedly haunted mirror inside the Myrtles Plantation house. Sometime after, the plantation passed to William Winter, a man who married one of the daughters of Sterling.

Springtime is when your Crape Myrtle will start coming back to life. As the weather gets warmer, the tree will begin to push out new foliage. However, you shouldn’t be alarmed if it’s not the first thing in your landscape to come back. Crape Myrtles lose all their leaves in winter, and they go into a state of dormancy until spring. Like a bear hibernating for the winter, your Crape Myrtle will use this time to store its energy before it releafs when the weather warms up.
According to the legend, in the 1800s Judge Clark Woodruff, the plantation’s owner, had an affair with Chloe, the household servant. When Judge Woodruff began having an affair with another girl, Chloe feared that she would be banned from the house and forced to work in the fields with the other slaves. Easily grown in a variety of, well-drained soils, this Southern California flowering tree is a great choice for full sun areas. Although native to Asia, the Golden Rain Tree tolerates drought conditions and many air pollutants common to Southern California cities. This tree has been widely used in Southern California due to its suitability as a street tree and is a favorite for parks and lawns. It’s light green, almost leathery leaves are rounded with a pointed tip and become an amazing property feature when changing to a deep crimson in fall.
Her plan backfired, however, when the amount of poison caused the children to die. Fearing that they would be accused of murder by association, Chloe’s fellow slaves dragged her from bed that night, hanged her, then threw her body in the river. Some say that Chloe has appeared in their photos from the plantation and others hear the young girls laughing and playing at the Myrtles today. Now, Myrtles Plantation is a bed and breakfast with a full service restaurant, offering tours for visitors to experience one of America’s most haunted homes. This specimen is a flowering shade tree, reaching a height and a width of ft.
It is reportedly a haunted place, and has been featured in television. The Myrtles Plantation has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978. The “best” of anything can be a subjective term, relative to the specific site conditions, function, and preferences of a Southern California property owner. Even landscape designers vary in their opinions of the best flowering trees Southern California can offer. The Mimosa or Silk Tree gets our pick as one of the best flowering trees for Southern California landscaping due to it’s unique leaf texture and delicate flowers. Crape Myrtles are undoubtedly one of the best flowering trees Southern California has to offer.
By the time winter rolls around, your Crape Myrtle will look much different than it did during spring or summer. In fact, your tree may even look dead – totally barren of any foliage and just dry, brown limbs. Some say they died of yellow fever, others believe they were poisoned by the famous Chloe, a "ghost" who was reportedly once a slave owned by Clarke and Sara. And is there any truth to the claims of ghost sightings at Myrtles?
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