The crape myrtles lining the sidewalk on the Imperial Palace side of the Palaceside Building are now in full bloom, as if refusing to lose to midsummer. About 50 trees stand along the roughly 200-meter walk. Their delicate red, pink, and white flowers delight people passing by.
The building planted them in the spring of 2007, 15 years ago. At the time the sidewalk had tall Japanese pagoda trees and low ubame oak, but Kazuko Hongo of Arch, the flower shop on the basement first floor, suggested, “It feels lonely without flowering trees. Crape myrtle blooms for a long time and is strong against exhaust,” and that was the start.
As you know, the Japanese name sarusuberi—“monkey slip”—comes from bark that peels easily, leaving a smooth trunk. Besides nicknames such as “the tickle tree,” it is also called hyakujitsuko, “hundred-day red,” because it blooms for about three months from summer into early autumn.
Scatter, then bloom / scatter, then bloom again / crape myrtle Chiyo-ni of Kaga