Planting Crape Myrtles around pool - is this a bad idea?

[Sampo]

My wife and I are planning on improving the landscaping around our pool. We'd love to have a screen of 15 Crape Myrtles ringing the periphery, a bit beyond our pool fence. Most would be 20-30 ft away -- but a few would be as close as ~15 ft from the pool.

The pool is already overshadowed by mature Red Maple and Tulip Poplar trees. So our skimmers and Polaris are no strangers to leaves and seeds. But I'm slightly worried that the Crape Myrtles might produce an unmanageable amount of debris — they even showed up on some internet list of "plants that you should never have near your pool" . So I'm pausing and seeking the collective TFP wisdom: has anyone had a particularly negative (or positive!) experience?

We really like the idea of Crape Myrtles: for their long-lived flowers, dense screen, and rapid growth. But before I place the order... is this a colossally bad idea?!

CYA later!

Sampo

 

[Sampo]

P.S. I wonder if this was the right section of the forum? Mods - feel free to move this post elsewhere if there is a better place!

 

[Homebrewale]

I had one near a pool. I would occasionally get flowers in the water if the wind was blowing that way. 20 of them may be a bit too much.

How high does the screen of crape myrtles need to be? They come in all kinds of sizes. You could get dwarf ones that may only get 6' tall. I like the following website for information on various crape myrtles. They're grouped by size.

https://aggie-hort.tamu.edu/databases/crapemyrtle/crape_myrtle_varieties_byheight.html

 

[Mdragger88]

Its a terrible idea debris wise but it sure would be beautiful! Maybe just get a few mixed in with something else so it won’t be so bad?

 

[Griswald]

They are an invasive and horrible weed.

Plant anything else.

 

[Mdragger88]

They are an invasive and horrible weed.

Plant anything else.

I love them but my hubby holds the same opinion as you so we only have a couple

 

[Lilypad]

Beautiful trees. On the flip side, tons of dropped blooms, sticky sap and as mentioned, get ready to
find them poking up in nearby flowerbeds (uninvited). Not sure how bad their behavior is in the North,
but ughhh, I would have picked something else if I'd known better at the time. YMMV.

 

[Sampo]

Thanks everyone! Still so torn about this!

 

[JCD3nton]

This is seriously the worst idea you could possibly have. The neighbors behind my old house had a Crud Myrtle and it was constantly raining flowers down on my pool to a degree that it was impossible to keep clean. New house has several large Crud Myrtles near the pool and obviously the problem is much worse, even with some massive pruning to cut them away from the pool. Basically anything else would be better.

Oak trees - terrible
Queen palms - terrible
smaller fan palms - not too bad
sago palm - the gold standard for a poolside plant as long as nobody tries to eat the poisonous leaves. Will not make a mess, ever.
Hibiscus - might be a middle ground if you want something with flowers that will trash your pool less

 

[phonedave]

This is seriously the worst idea you could possibly have. The neighbors behind my old house had a Crud Myrtle and it was constantly raining flowers down on my pool to a degree that it was impossible to keep clean. New house has several large Crud Myrtles near the pool and obviously the problem is much worse, even with some massive pruning to cut them away from the pool. Basically anything else would be better.

Oak trees - terrible
Queen palms - terrible
smaller fan palms - not too bad
sago palm - the gold standard for a poolside plant as long as nobody tries to eat the poisonous leaves. Will not make a mess, ever.
Hibiscus - might be a middle ground if you want something with flowers that will trash your pool less

Maples - Get ready for the spring inundation of spinners, polynoses, seed pods, or whatever you call them.

 

[pennywise13]

I have one in DFW Texas area. It was there when we moved in. I trimmed it a few years ago and am planning to kill it this fall. The shade is nice and it is pretty when it blooms, but the debris is absolutely awful. It just got done dropping flowers and is now dropping little buds into the pool. Some of which have made stains on the pool bottom.

Granted, mine is only 6-8 feet from the pool and a good portion of the leaves overhang the pool, so your experience might not be so bad.

Also just for reference, we have a bunch of trees surrounding the pool. Those drop leaves and branches too, but the crape myrtle is much much more messy.

 

[reggiehammond]

My pool has 3 mature crape myrtles around one corner of the pool. Sure, there are blooms blown into pool regularly, but my skimmers work well and they sure are good looking in bloom.

 

[crosby1612]

My wife and I are planning on improving the landscaping around our pool. We'd love to have a screen of 15 Crape Myrtles ringing the periphery, a bit beyond our pool fence. Most would be 20-30 ft away -- but a few would be as close as ~15 ft from the pool.

The pool is already overshadowed by mature Red Maple and Tulip Poplar trees. So our skimmers and Polaris are no strangers to leaves and seeds. But I'm slightly worried that the Crape Myrtles might produce an unmanageable amount of debris — they even showed up on some internet list of "plants that you should never have near your pool" . So I'm pausing and seeking the collective TFP wisdom: has anyone had a particularly negative (or positive!) experience?

We really like the idea of Crape Myrtles: for their long-lived flowers, dense screen, and rapid growth. But before I place the order... is this a colossally bad idea?!

CYA later!

Sampo

View attachment 564636

We just planted a row of privet. They're evergreen so we'll have privacy year round, and they have nice white flowers in the spring.