|
| Last summer my well-meaning husband bought me a dwarf crepe myrtle. I forget the name but the tag said hardy to zone 7, I live in zone 6. (No, he has no clue about hardiness zones). So he planted it in fall. It's about 4-5' tall, and looks completely dead. But a scratch test shows green wood almost all the way to the top. What to do with it now? Just trim off dead tips and wait? When might it show signs of life?
Karen |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
| Hi Karen - don't know if this will help, but 3 years ago, I planted crepe myrtle from seed. It bloomed the first year, I wanted to plant in ground in the fall, but called our extension office first. I was told that it is considered a semi tropical plant, and would not overwinter in the ground in zone 5. So I have been bringing it in every fall. I do the hardening off process every year, but even at that, it always looks like it's dying until about the middle of June. My point being, give it some time yet to show signs of life-you are a zone ahead of me-may start to show life in May? And don't give up on it! They are beautiful little plants. Hope someone else can chime in with some "real" advice! Shirley! |
|
| Karen, I'm just looking at my own and it looks like heck. Zuni, about 15 yrs old and for some reason it's still holding some of last years very dead leaves - we had a nasty out of ordinary freeze before Thanksgiving, before it had gone dormant. It's still been cool here (afternoons barely into 50's so far this Spring) and I'm not doing anything with mine - I'm just going to give it another month or so and see what happens, see what leafs out, waiting for some pruning cues. OT, mine has made a very pretty small tree with really interesting peeling bark, but it's never once gotten warm enough (in my very hottest exposure) to bloom. |
|
| Shirley, beautiful 'little' plants? Mine's 12' tall - a small tree. |
|
| I know, Morz8, I know-I expected a small tree, and in fact the seed package said I would get a small tree, but mine has never grown over 2 to 2 1/2 feet high. Maybe the fact that I bring it in every fall, or my climate? It is in a 10x8 plastic pot, always has been. I don't feed it. Don't know what's going on! Shirley! |
|
| Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll just cut off the dead flowers and wait, hope that it comes back. The green wood was encouraging. Though it says it's only hardy to zone 7, it's planted in a somewhat protected corner and it was planted rather deep. I have pushed back the mulch a little now. It was beautiful in bloom last year when my husband bought it, but, since new, I have no idea how that come to be. Might have been shipped here from the deep south or grown in a greenhouse. Karen |
|
| Hi, I'm not that familiar with the dwarf variety, but there are many varieties of Crepe myrtle hardy in our area. There are some beautiful examples of large, old, crepe myrtles in Spring Grove Cemetery, and at the Krohn Conservatory (outside), as well as in some of the older neighborhoods. I think yours will do well. They don't start to get going until it really warms up a bit, but it should flower wonderfully for you. I planted a tree variety last summer, no signs of life yet, but can't wait until this summer. When I was looking for a tree variety last year everyone told me the dwarf were more hardy, so my guess is yours will do well. |
|
| signs of life! One branch of that crepe myrtle is starting to leaf out. Karen |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Winter Sowing Forum
Instructions
- You must be a registered member and logged in to post messages on our forums.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review the contents and make changes.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- It is illegal to post copyrighted material without the owner's consent.
- HTML codes are allowed in the message field only.
- No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.