Crape Myrtle
September 30, 2017
Is it too late for me to trim crape myrtles and red top photinias? I also have some large woody plants that are growing around my back yard that I have cut back but they just seem to be doing better than ever. I have heard that you put salt on them to kill them. Is it rock salt, how do you do it without killing everything around it?
The time to prune crape myrtles is in February, before new growth begins. Pruning them in the fall can expose them to winter damage if we have a cold winter. The key is to get them through the bulk of the winter before pruning. If your red top photinia just needs a light trim, that is fine to do now, but severe pruning--removing more than 1/3 of the plant should be done in the spring; you don’t want to encourage too much new growth this late in the season. I do not like to use salt to kill plants, as salt will stay in the soil for a long time and can leach out and damage nearby root systems. Once you cut the trees down, you can paint the stumps with an herbicide such as Brush-B-Gon, Brush Killer or Roundup Super Concentrate. Monitor these trees next spring as new growth begins, and if you see new growth repeat the above process.
January 30, 2016
My husband is eager to prune our crape myrtles and our fig trees. I think you said to wait until February to do this. Please advise.
Since we finally have had some winter weather, I think it is important to wait until late February before pruning, especially to prune your fig tree. If you prune it too early, you expose more of the plant to potential damage. The past two winters have not been kind to fig trees, and I would make sure they are out of the woods from winter weather before pruning. I don’t think it is a bad idea to even wait until March, depending on what the rest of the winter brings. I have seen many crape myrtles already butchered, and even when pruned properly you still have a more unattractive plant when pruned than when it is full of limbs. Early pruning does expose more of the plant to winter injury should we get any severe weather, so tell him to be patient.
November 2014
Last year I asked about trimming crape myrtles and you sent me a picture of how it
should look after trimming. My husband did a great job of following the picture. However,
we did not get any blooms this year while all of our neighbors, who murdered theirs,
have prolific blooms. What did we do wrong?
Normally pruning alone does not interfere with blooming, unless you prune late in
the growing season—they bloom on new growth. How much sunlight do the plants receive?
As you saw, severe pruning (crape murder) doesn’t hurt blooming, but often the blooms
are produced on such weak stems that they become weeping crape myrtles instead of
upright forms. Proper pruning also should not impact or prevent flowering, but should
have the blooms on upright stems. Many crape myrtles were later blooming this year
due to the milder season, but eventually they did bloom.
October 2012
My husband and I are going to trim the crepe myrtles on Military Dr in NLR for the
Amboy Neighborhood Association. When is the best time to trim crepe myrtles? Also,
can the bushy ones be thinned down to three or four stalks and trimmed up like trees?
The best time to prune crape myrtles is before new growth begins in the spring—typically
late February. It is preferable to trim a standard variety as a tree, instead of a
bush, but it can take a few years to change.
January 2012
I have several Crape Myrtles from three to six feet tall. They all froze last winter.
I cut them down to the ground, as instructed by our local nursery owner, and they
came back beautifully in the spring and produced beautiful flowers that lasted a long
time in the late summer, with several different periods of bloom. When is the best
time of year to cut them back again and at what height to achieve the same production
and growth as last year?
If you have standard crape myrtles then try pruning them into a tree again. Choose
three to five of the straightest and strongest sprouts and prune everything else out
in late February to mid March. Then take off anything smaller than a pencil in diameter.
Eventually they will grow back into trees, provided they don't get frozen again.
October 2010
I need to know what to do about off-shoots from crape myrtles that will not kill the
mother tree. I have a tree that is probably 30-40 years old and from its wandering
root system, shoots appear every year and this year some are blooming. For years I
have just cut them off, but wonder if there is a product that I can use to control
them without harm to the main tree.
Continue doing what you are doing. There is nothing you could spray with that would
kill the sprouts but not hurt the mother plant. Most of these suckers are attached
to the mother plant. Some varieties are more prone to suckering than others, so just
cut each season.
February 2010
After several years of trimming my crape myrtles back, there is a large knot where
the new growth comes out each year. Should I continue to trim as in the past or should
I cut the tree below the knot or does it really make any difference? They are mature
and the knots are about 5 feet high.
If you have those gnarly knots or knees, then you are not trimming your crape myrtles,
you are butchering them. Cutting them back to those ugly knots or every year encourages
loads of new sprouts which grow rapidly then fall over under the weight of the flowers.
The key if you have standard crape myrtles is to allow them to grow into graceful
trees. You have two options since you have the knots. You can either cut them out
or gradually let them outgrow it, cutting off everything less than a pencil in diameter
and thinning out the number of branches emerging from the knots to no more than three
branches. For those starting with young crape myrtles, the best way to achieve a beautiful
tree is to leave three to five main trunks, making sure that there is ample room between
each trunk to achieve mature size and width. Let the trunks grow to a height of five
to six feet before pruning and then start shaping them into a tree. Depending on the
variety, your crape myrtle can be a ground cover Lagerstroemia ‘Razzle Dazzle’, a
dwarf getting no more than 3-4 feet or a standard growing 20-30 feet tall. Know what
you want before you buy them, and then allow them to grow into what they were supposed
to be. An excellent database on crape myrtles—heights, colors, etc is on our extension
website at: http://www.uaex.uada.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/crape-myrtle/ .
March 2005
Is it too late to prune crape myrtles? My neighbor pruned hers in November, and I
just have not had time to get it done. The trees are ten feet or more in height, and
I see them 3-4 feet all over town. Help!
You have probably all heard of the “rape of the crapes” or “crape murder”, and that
is what I think is occurring whenever the plants are sheared back to three or four
feet. If you are growing a standard crape myrtle, it has the potential to be a small
tree, growing up to 20 feet or more. Let it grow up! They have outstanding peeling
bark, and interesting branching patterns. If you don’t have room for it to reach its
mature size, consider moving it to a location where it does. Blooming may not be as
large per stem with taller plants, but you will have more blossoms and they won’t
cause the branches to droop over, and you get the benefit of mature bark. To answer
your question, it is not too late to prune crape myrtles, but please don’t butcher
them. You do want to prune to make sure you have good branching structure, and that
you keep a fairly open plant, but yearly shearing is not good!
February 2008
I have heard your response on how to properly prune a crape myrtle, but I have one
unanswered question. We purchased a house with several crape myrtles that have already
been cut back to that loathsome four foot height. All small branches have been removed
and each crape myrtle has about five main trunks. If I want to let them grow as you
recommend, should I cut all the branches back to ground level in one fell swoop or
will that kill the plant? I don't want the pollarded look at the four foot height,
and I don't want to aggressively prune the crape myrtle every year. I suspect the
plants are ten to fifteen years old.
It is February, so it is the proper month to prune a crape myrtle. Unfortunately,
if you have a tree that has been butchered in the past, it is not a quick fix. You
do have some options. One would be to do as you ask, and start over by cutting the
plant to the ground. This will take time to restructure the tree. If you do this,
choose three to five sprouts that appear, and prune out everything else. Gradually
shape it into a tree. The other option is to cut out the knobs and then choose one
sprout that appears from that point this growing season and grow it into a tree, or
prune to the strongest branch that is growing above the knob and let it become a true
branch, cutting out all the other twigs from that knob.
September 2009
We set out crape myrtle trees this summer. When is the best time to trim the lower
branches so that it will bush out more at the top? They have done very well.
Pruning lower limbs is not going to have much impact on branching at the top of the
plants. Removing lower limbs gives you more of a tree like appearance, but to encourage
better branching at the top, prune to buds on upper branches to encourage fullness.
Pruning of crape myrtles should be done in late February to early March.
December 2009
I have what I think are several dwarf crepe myrtles in the flower beds around my home.
They grow in a bushy mounded shape and I would like to prune them back some. (They
are bare right now.) When is the best time to prune them? What is the correct way
to prune them? I know how to prune my large tree-like crepe myrtles, but I have never
pruned the dwarf variety.
Dwarf crape myrtles never produce beautiful bark like their tree-like counterparts,
so correct pruning is not as much of an issue here. I still prefer to wait until late
February to prune them for added winter protection, but you can prune them back by
half or more every year. The key here is to encourage new growth, keep them in the
height range you want and let them bloom on the new growth. With some of the newer
varieties of dwarf crape myrtles they are grown as ground covers and spread wider
than they do tall.
January 2010
We have a crepe myrtle that has not been trimmed for 20 years. It has branched out
at least 20 feet wide with many stems (or trunks) some of which are four inches in
diameter and the base is probably 30 inches in diameter. It must stand 12-15 feet
tall. How do we trim it back? When do we cut back? Where do we start? Another crepe
myrtle nearby is much smaller but is beginning to spread the same way. How should
it be trimmed?
Crape myrtles come in a variety of mature sizes from ground covers to mature trees
getting 25-35 feet tall. My preference is if you have the standard tree forms that
you allow them to be trees. I like three to five main trunks and everything else pruned
out. Then shape them with a good branching structure. Twenty feet wide is more a large
bush. Thinning them out and reshaping may take time, but at least they aren't cut
back to those ugly knobs every year. The best time to prune is late February to mid
March after the bulk of winter weather has passed.
February 2010
We recently moved into a house with six well established crape myrtles in the front
yard. The problem is that they have been whacked on pretty bad and have huge ugly
knots. They have flowered well but still have knots that just look disgusting during
the winter months. Should I get out the big saw and cut these trees back below the
knots or are they supposed to be cut above the knots or what? I've watched your pruning
video but nothing is mentioned about trees that a person "inherits" which have been
butchered. I'm a newbie with these beautiful trees and would like to clean up the
mess that has been made and give them a chance to start over. Can you possibly give
me some very detailed instructions for how to make them look good again?
You have a couple of options. One is to cut off the horrid knots, and then when multiple
sprouts begin growing this spring, choose two to three of the sprouts and prune all
the others off. Then next spring, prune off anything smaller than a pencil in diameter
and gradually grow some taller stronger branches. The other option is to leave the
knots but choose three of the strongest branches that are growing from them, and prune
off everything else. Eventually you can restructure them into beautiful trees which
are as pretty in the winter as in the summer and fall, but it will take several years.
September 2007
I need some help and information regarding our crape myrtle. Before we moved into
our new home in September the builder planted a crape myrtle tree and it was blooming
beautifully. The crape myrtle started to leaf out this spring and then we got hit
with another hard freeze; the trees new growth was killed off. It finally started
growing again in the spring from the bottom up, but it had a lot of dead branches
on top. My husband cut the dead branches off, but since then the tree has not bloomed.
Did he prune the tree incorrectly to discourage the blooms? We live in Bentonville.
You aren't alone in the damage to crape myrtles. They were damaged somewhat statewide,
but annihilated in Northwest Arkansas. They were well ahead of their normal schedule
due to the mild March, so the late freezes did even more damage. For now, you simply
must be patient and gradually retrain them into trees. Many crape myrtles bloomed
more sparsely than normal if at all this summer. What I like to see in a crape myrtle
are three to five main trunks and branching beginning about five to six feet off the
ground. Prune as needed next February.
April 2007
I read all your wonderful info I could find on crepe myrtles, however, I didn't see
this answer. It is now March and I have arrived home to find my crepe myrtles leafing
out. I wanted to prune them back, but do I dare do it now with new growth on them?
I need to as they are taking over our home.
While it is true that we like to get the crape myrtles pruned prior to new growth
beginning, this year things got moving a little quicker than normal. You can still
prune without impacting the first blooms by much, but do it soon. The later you prune
a summer blooming plant like crape myrtle, the later your first set of blooms may
be since they bloom on their new growth. Make sure you know why you are pruning and
don't butcher them into ugly knobs. I have seen the worse forms of crape "murder"
this year than ever. Let these wonderful trees produce large trunks and let them become
trees if you have room for them to grow.
June 2006
We moved here from Colorado and had a landscaper do some work in our yard last summer.
I like the Crepe Myrtles and wanted some in my flower bed next to house. He said they
would do fine there since they can be pruned back to whatever shape desired. Since
then I have had neighbors say they do much better away from house so they can grow
larger. The ones put in are not the small-type-bushes, they are the larger bushes.
Should I move them away from house and give them more space in yard? Does it damage
Crepe Myrtles to prune them back each year keeping them at a smaller size? Also, would
it damage them to move them as they were planted July, 2005? Just not sure if these
Crepe Myrtles will get too big in 3 to 5 years. There are 7 of them next to house.
Any help you can give me will be much appreciated. I also learned to check out landscapers
a lot better in future.
It is quite obvious from the butchered crape myrtles all over the south that crape
myrtles can be severely pruned each year with no loss of life, but I am with your
neighbors in that they will be more attractive plants if they are given space to grow
and allowed to do so. Standard crape myrtles have outstanding bark if they are allowed
to become trees and their floral display is nothing to sneeze at. There are dwarf
varieties that can and often should take severe pruning each year, and they might
be good replacements. Crape myrtles can be moved, and yours are still young. I would
have preferred to move them in February, but it can still be done now, if you are
prepared to water and allow them to wilt and look sad for a week or two. Crape myrtles
aren't the only "trees" that some landscapers plant as foundation plantings. I cringe
when I see river birch and Bradford pears planted next to a house--they are large
trees at maturity!
March 2005
Can I cut back the forsythia after it blooms? And isn't it time to cut back the Rose
of Sharon bushes, crepe myrtles and butterfly bushes?
Forsythia should be pruned after bloom. Remove one third of the old canes down at
the soil line to encourage new growth. There is still time to prune Rose-of-Sharon,
crape myrtle and butterfly bush, as all of these plants bloom on the current season
growth. Try to do it soon since new growth is beginning.
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