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Pruning Crape Myrtles

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Posted by edcaroleg z8TX (My Page) on
Sat, Oct 2, 04 at 15:29

We bought three "lanky" crape myrtles fom Home Depot mostly because we wanted some and these were all they had left or were going to get for the remainder of the season, (and they seemed healthy, albeit scraggly). Now we don't know how to trim them. Neil Sperry says absolutely don't trim the tops and Howard Garrett says to trim the tops heavily in the fall? Any advice?

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RE: Pruning Crape Myrtles

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Out of pure horror I looked up Garrett's comments on crapemyrtles and found that he does NOT recommend cutting them back heavily in the fall. Perhaps you were reading or listening to a specific example?? I wish you could post pictures of your trees. If there are really awful, I would probably cut them all the way to the ground....in what is called 'rejuvenation pruning'. Then selectively prune and shape your brand new trees in the spring.

If you decide to let them be lanky, do NOT top them. Prune away shrubby, twiggy stems to the main trunk/trunks and attempt to give them some grace.

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RE: Pruning Crape Myrtles

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Thanks Dorie for the advice. Guess I misquoted Garrett somewhat. I really thought I was being accurate but my memory is not what it used to be. (Never was too good!) On page 91 of his "Plants for Texas" he said: "Top pruning can be done after flowers fade for second burst of blooms. This in under the paragraph for Lagerstroemia indica. He is not variety specific but mentions various colored varieties. Home Depot only labeled my three shrubs "White Crepe Myrtle". I will attach photo when I figure out how to do it!!

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RE: Pruning Crape Myrtles

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Crepe Myrtle

Here is a link that might be useful: Kodak Pictures

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RE: Pruning Crape Myrtles

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edcaroleg -
try this link for photo help specific to GW

Here is a link that might be useful: photo link help

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RE: Pruning Crape Myrtles

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Trying again to post picture!http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4ce25b3127cceb7b717bd43800000001610

Here is a link that might be useful: One of the Crepe Myrtles

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RE: Pruning Crape Myrtles

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  • Posted by ekaa or (My Page) on
    Wed, Oct 13, 04 at 23:41

How you prune your Crape Myrtle depends solely on how you want your Crape Myrtle to look balanced with what is best with regards to the trees health and well being. From your pictures I noticed that there where 3 co-dominant shoots,and what looks like a few suckers. You could either take out one shoot a season(never take more that 25% of foliage off in a season) until only one remains, then train that in what ever way you desire. But considering that it is a Crpe Myrtle you may want it to become bushy. If bushy is what you want then I would consider (and I know that there are opposing views on this) topping it which will encourage more horizontal growth. Keep in mind that certain rules apply differently to different aged trees and/or shrubs just as they would with human beings. A young tree or shrub is going to recover just fine to a topping. It would be an extremely bad move to top an adult tree. I do know that topping is a much less extereme way to create balance than cutting it at ground level. THey gave it a lovley name though "rejuvenation pruning" haha. I would save that for a very last resort.
Good Luck
ekaa

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RE: Pruning Crape Myrtles

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Just for the record, I haven't recommended prunning back crape myrtles for decades. Years ago, I told people to even leave the seed pods because they look good. More recently we have discovered that small birds like finches like to eat the seeds. It is others who until a couple of years ago urged gardeners to prune back to pencil size wood. Now that they are finally talking about the poper pruning, maybe we can get them to look down and see that almost all crapemyrtles have been planted too deep in the ground. Here's some information on root flare exposure from my web site: http://www.dirtdoctor.com/view_question.php?id=484.

Here is a link that might be useful: dirtdoctor

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RE: Pruning Crape Myrtles

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We have several adult Crape Myrtles - when we bought house, they were blooming - last year they hardly bloomed at all. FYI, they are quite tall and did bloom some at top, but not at all on lower branches. We also have some younger trees and they didn't bloom at all. Now what should we do this year to ensure they will bloom? Thanks for the help as we are new to this gardening and tree stuff.

  
 

 

 


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