How would I go about restoring these crapes? I'd guess they're about the same age as the house, which was built in 1978 or 79.

If they need to be taken out entirely or cut down to a foot or so above ground, I'll need permission from the HOA, but I've already planted some seedlings (carolina silverbell and a smoke tree) that will one day take over the crape directly in front of the house and I have plans to get a professional landscaper in for the strip on the side of the house, which includes the 2nd crape.

Neither crape flowered particularly well this year. And much as I like crape myrtles, I think that there are other more worthy trees for the limited amount of space I have available on my quarter acre of suburbia.

But, for the moment, how should I approach the restoration of these two trees?

Tree 1: (close up)

Tree 1: a view of an intriguing branch that has merged with another - a good argument against allowing internal cross-branches

Tree 1: (further away)

Tree 1: (in its entirety)

Tree 2: (close up)

Tree 2: (in its entirety)

Regarding their relative merits - we have dozens of them in a more commercial setting around our barns. They are a good choice here because in late summer everything here is brown, brown, brown and they provide great color and lushness without being water hogs. Their bark and fall color is pleasing, so we get practically year-round interest from them. I selected amongst mildew-resistant varieties. Having said that, I would not want them in a choice spot if my space were limited as they are one of the last shrubs/trees to leaf out and thus have bare branches for far longer than other plants.
Good luck!

but if you cut it to the ground.. wont you lose all bloom this year????

but why not do a faster 'rejuvenation pruning' ...

e.g. last pic ... directly above.. take out one of the 3 trunks at about 6 inches [and that is what they mean when they say cut to the ground.. dont be literal]... watch the other two bloom.. and the cut one explode with new shoots .. dont forget.. no insult to the roots here ...

come fall.. take the second of the larger ones.. next spring/summer ... you will get bloom on the oldest remaining.. and the second year growth... then that fall take the third ...

unless you cut them to the ground [6 inches] .. as suggested.. renovating them.. will be a 3 to 4 year project ... your choice ... it is not something you will do once and be done.. unless that once is ground level[6 inches] .. and no bloom next season ..

an no.. they do not need to be fed.. but your lawn does.. and if you bring the lawn up to speed.. these trees roots will get all that they need.. they will NOT need extra ...

i guess .... though you are in the tree forum.. and i am not sure which they are.. since i dont do CM .. i am suggesting they can be treated as a shrub ...

ken

I second Ken's idea. Cut off a couple trunks and do some thinning of the newer growth at the pollarding cuts.

My CM dies back a bit most years due to cold but tolerates summer heat and drought wonderfully. It also flowers when little else is so I understand the wife's attachment to it.

I did a crepe myrtle restoration pruning to mine that were planted by the previous home owners at the entrance to my driveway. The previous owners would cut them to the ground every year treating them like a woody perennial. They would grow up to about 5 feet and full of blooms. The only trouble was it created a sight hazard pulling unto the street out of the driveway.

To perform a restoration pruning to restore them back to what they really are-trees, you will need to implement a systematic program during mid to late winter (around end of January-early February before buds begin to swell). This will not be difficult. First remove all stubs and rubbing limbs the first pruning cycle. I would also pick out no more than 2 leaders coming from each "knuckle" to leave while removing the remaining sprouts. Be sure that the leaders to be left have a good attachment. During the growing season, pinch off any suckers and unwanted lateral growth.

During the second winter, you should be in pretty good shape and be able to thin out the canopy to a level that is sustainable for the tree and more appealing esthetically. After this, your crepes should be pretty well good to go.

Crepe myrtles are very forgiving so if you mess up in your restoration pruning, don't worry you can still cut them down to the ground (as suggested earlier) and they will come back. (You have some attractive trunk development so I would try to do the restoration pruning first rather than simply cut them down and start again though.)

The bloom show on mine has not been negatively effected by my restoration pruning efforts. The flower show has just simply been raised up on the plants.

Crepes are very fast growers, specially in the hotter areas of the south so based on your pictures, I would bet those guys that you have are not even 10 years old!

You note that they did not bloom very well this year--Do you have any idea of the cultivar (if not how about a flower color)? Crepes like full sun, more sun exposure equals more flowers. I see a lot of towering pines that may be limiting the amount of direct sunlight on your crepes.

Good luck.

Other than those things, I agree with Tn_Tree_Man's recommendations. There's nothing wrong with pruning the crapes at ground level (and I do mean ground level, or darn near that), but it's at least not the only option. By doing the corrective pruning, similar to what Tn_Tree_Man recommended, there would likely be much less work needed to get the crapes back into a good conditions. The disadvantages in cutting them to the ground are that vigilant sucker pulling will be required for at least a couple of years (unless you want many, many trunks), and, the new growth would likely be lanky and limber. I usually have to tie trunks together with panty hose or something like that when I cut crapes to the ground.

Whatever you do, don't just cut the stumps lower but not very near the ground. I also wouldn't do Ken's method on crape myrtles. The reason is that you get the disadvantages (suckering, limber growth, etc), you get the disadvantages over a multi-year period, and you don't really get much advantage (except maybe more blooms the first year). To me, those blooms wouldn't be worth stretching out all the trouble.

-Brandon-The spelling of "crepe" vs "crape" has been an interesting discussion/debate! A conclusion that I have heard said was that it is similar to the proper pronounciation for clematis, "cle-ma'-tis or clem'-atis; either is acceptable in the trade." The truth is that someone probably was not a master of phonics in his/her day! :)

- "Crape myrtle is the overwhelming choice both in botanical sources and in other dictionary sources." - Michael Agnes, executive editor of Webster's New World Dictionary

- The Crape Myrtle Society of America spells it with an "a"

- "The common name of this plant is crape myrtle not crepe myrtle." - Floridata

- The National Arboretum, as well as almost all arboretums, uses "crape myrtle" not "crepe myrtle"

If you decided to remove the plant - importance of herbicide to prevent suckering from the roots

If you decide to cut at ground level and let resprout - frequency of sucker removal/importance of early sucker removal, importance of pulling/ripping suckers rather than cutting them, methods of supporting new growth, considering branch attachment strength

If you decide to use remedial pruning to thin out what you have now - this option was pretty well covered, but if you have questions...

if this is true .. this is the key:

Crepe myrtles bloom on new wood

if so.. cut them to 3 to 6 inches ... and be done with the project ...

and you could probably do it right now.. and not have to look at them again.. until they start leafing out in spring .. be done with it if you can ...

as they get some size.. say around 12 inches .. you will probably want to select down to 3 to 5 of the strongest.. leaders.. and remove excess ... you really wont need a hundred of them .. from one stump ...

ken

I think I'm going to try the selective pruning method. It'll be the easiest in terms of dealing with suckers, the HOA that'll want its say on why I'm cutting down a tree with a trunk diametre greater than 4 inches and my liking for the mature trunk and bark.

It is possible that the tree on the side strip, between our neighbours and the driveway is in a tad too much shade, but the other (the one I labelled tree 1) is in full sun for nearly the whole day. It's on the south east side of all the shade. Unfortunately I don't seem to have a photo of either tree in bloom.

And because looking at those poor trees is so depressing, here's a feel good part to my response. :-)

Here's the Natchez I planted at our old house in late spring 2009. It was chest high for me (4' and a bit) at the time and it's now probably 7 foot plus.

This was June 2009, shortly after planting (you can still see the tag on the tree, with my then 8 month old next to it for scale.

And here is the same tree this summer, 2012. Without my toddler this time.

And Ken, no way would I treat these as perennial shrubs. ;-) Not unless I planted a shrub form crape myrtle. And even then, there's no need to cut them to the ground in my zone. Even zone 7b (where the Natchez above is planted) is very accommodating to lagerstroemia.

Widdringtonia, I'm not sure I follow you on the ease of dealing with suckers thought, but I do understand your HOA reasoning (although I'd guess they'd be fine with it with just a simple explanation of what you were doing). One final thing to think about, concerning the selective removal method, is the possibility of difficulty in dealing with pruning around the existing trunks without damage. In other words, you might run into difficulty pruning the suckers in between the older trunks this next year and also have difficulty removing the remaining old trunks, the following years, without damaging the new growth. Not impossible, but possibly difficult.