The "Snowball" Tree

  As soon as I looked out the window this morning, I was pleasantly surprised.  My "Snowball" Tree was in full bloom!  The brilliant pink blossoms (yes, I know snow is white) were slightly waving in the wind as if to say "We are here!"  Oh, my goodness!  What a happy way to begin the day!  My brother's trees have been blooming for two weeks and I had wondered if mine were going to pass the summer by without delighting me with their beauty.   Now, I can marvel at the brilliance of color!  

  I am referring to the Crape Myrtle Trees that line the lower terrace of the hillside. The large trees that were in the yard years ago had met a tragic end with the brutal force of Hurricane Katrina.  Still, all was not lost.  The roots of the trees sent up new shoots and, soon, baby trees dotted the hillside.  These were dug and replanted in a row along the large railroad ties that had washed in with the flood waters.  Those ties now form the terrace border and they are lined with bright pink blooms.  Crape Myrtles are some of the easiest showpieces to grow!  Just plop them in the ground and forget about them.  I am all about easy planting so it is only natural that Crape Myrtles are my shrub of choice.  These are actually an offspring of some that Pop had planted years ago.  This was back on the farm and that is where I (as a little girl) decided that they were "Snowball" Trees.  This came simply because the blooms reminded me of snowballs.  Not the kind made from the white, fluffy stuff that falls from the sky in the winter but the kind you eat!  In the Deep South, we have names that might confuse others.  Snowballs are one and the same as snowcones, the distant cousin of shaved ice.  All of these consist of crushed ice doused with some sweet syrup.  As kids, we were allowed a couple of snowballs each summer. Pop and Mom would load all of the kids into the back of the old Studebaker wagon and head across the bridge "to town".  Just at the foot of the opposite end of the bridge sat the snowball place.  Milles' Snowcones were the best treat one could get during the hot summers here on the Coast!  The place always had a line that seemed to be a mile long.   People from all over wanted their snowballs during the muggy hot summers.  

  Whenever we did get to go to Milles', I always ordered the strawberry ice! This was the identical brilliant pink of the Crape Myrtles!  It did not take me long to rename those shrubs after the snowballs.  If I could not have a snowball every day, at least I could look at the flowers and dream of the velvety goodness of the flavored shaved ice.  Since then, I have called the trees by that name!  It is great!  Even this morning, I thought of Milles', old times and happy summers spent on the farm!  I love this bush!