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| Went to dig out a Crape Crepe Myrtle today and transplanted it to another oart of the yard. Bush is no taller than I am and trees twice that tall come in milk jugs at the box store so I figured how hard could it be!
That thing had roots! At no point did I wise up and get out the chainsaw and just go buy a new one either. We ended up with a three foot round rootball and using a truck to pull it out of the hole then my mower and trailer to move it. I should have remembered my lesson from a decade ago when me and a neighbor extracated an ash tree from a gravel driveway. I mean it lived but new ones only cost a couple 20's while a heart attack is forever. At least the wife is happy. She picked out that zone 7 bush from the box store so many years ago. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Awesome! Last spring my 2 crapes in the front died to the ground. I mistakenly thought they perished so I dug them up and put them in the burn pile for a couple of weeks. Then noticed they had sprouted about a dozen 1' sprouts each. Moved them and planted them in two different spots. Both grew 3' on nearly all stems. I reduced each plant to 4 stems this spring. Both plants were also 5' tall when I dug them up. Of course it was all dead to the ground at the time. ALSO, they put out roots in the one season they were planted some 6-8'! I had suckers EVERYWHERE IN THE FLOWERBED!! I gave a few of the root sections away and dug up the rest. So in short, yes, they are tougher than nails! Only thing I would worry about is how you pulled them out. Make sure you didn't mess up the bark on the trunks too bad... Good luck! John |
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| It was funny, I had just the opposite issue yesterday. I have several dozen one and two year old self-seeded butterfly bushes. The two year olds were quite large, some 6' tall. I decided to tackle the largest first. Thought it would be some epic struggle. Instead, it just popped right out after a couple of shovels full. Apparently, they don't have a massive root system. While I did cut a moderate tap root, it wasn't all that larger about two feet out from the crown, and the other roots were all fairly small and compact. The younger plants were really easy, insert shovel, push on handle, and they popped up like toast. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Mon, Mar 19, 12 at 7:40
| At no point did I wise up and get out the chainsaw and just go buy a new one either. ==>>> still inside that learning curve.. eh??? like you havent seen my multiple posts with said suggestion .. lol ken |
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| Thing is Ken, with those things, a chainsaw is of very limited use. Cut them off even with the ground, and in a couple weeks, here they come again. Once you have crapes, they are difficult to de-crape oneself. Arktrees |
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| WOW Toronado, Thats a good story...Lessons to be learned there!I removed a couple crapes and had my share of volunteers for a while...and they were only dwarf crapes. My brother has a huge one in a large conifer island. I think one day he may be in for a big headache. |
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