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  • Carolyn Rodgers talks about the Crapemyrtle Trail and Crapes for Crapemyrtles during Wednesday's Rotary meeting. Derrick Miller/The Duncan Banner

    Carolyn Rodgers talks about the Crapemyrtle Trail and Crapes for Crapemyrtles during Wednesday's Rotary meeting.
April 5, 2012

Rodgers talks crapemyrtles, crepes at Rotary gathering

Derrick Miller The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — It has been four years since Duncan became the Crapemyrtle Capital of Oklahoma, and more than 100 flowering bushes will be added to the official Crapemyrtle Trail this year.

During Tuesday’s meeting of the Duncan Rotary Club, Carolyn Rodgers, Duncan Beautification Committee chair, told Rotarians about the upcoming Crepes for Crapemyrtles Party, and various project goals for this year.

Previously held in the summer, Crepes for Crapemyrtles Party is set for April 27 at the Simmons Center. This is the only fundraiser hosted by the committee and the money generated goes to buying more crapemyrtles to plant throughout Duncan.

In addition, the funds are used to purchasing signs to put along the Oklahoma Department of Transportation-maintained portions of the Crapemyrtle Trail, plus various other odds and ends for the project.

“We’re having a party instead of a sit-down dinner,” Rodgers said. “We’ve done that (party) in the past couple of years. You get to eat all the crepes you want.”

While the event has previously been held during the summer, when crapemyrtles are in bloom, it was moved this year to avoid the possibility of a unpleasant temperatures, like those of 2011.

“This year, we chose a cooler month,” Rodgers said. “It’s a time when people are thinking about gardening.”

The committee hopes to buy nine signs to mark the Crapemyrtle Trail. A Leadership Duncan class purchased several signs for the trail, but because Rodgers was busy working to get approval from ODOT for more signage, the committee will be responsible for buying the new ones.

The fundraiser will allow the committee to plant more crapemyrtles throughout the city.

Rodgers said the plan is to create a crapemyrtle garden at Kelsey Avant’s new business location, and to plant between 62 to 65 more crapemyrtles throughout the city. Avants is an Edward Jones investment advisor, who is moving his office from Main Street Duncan to a historic building on 10th Street.

Plans are to plant about 100 crapemyrtles there and on the designated trail.

Many of the crapemyrtles will be donated to people who agree to plant them. Recipients will have to sign a pledge to water the plants for the first two years to ensure they will grow successfully.

Rodgers has been working to obtain ODOT approval to plant the bushes in the median on U.S. Highway 81.

“We will have a limited number and size,” Rodgers told the Rotarians. “You will be seeing a lot of crapemyrtles along the trail.”

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