Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Triming a crape myrtle?
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Old 12-14-2023, 02:55 PM
Pondboy Pondboy is offline
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It’s called Crepe Murder if you butcher it, i.e severely cut it back. You loose the beautiful shape of it is the downside.

Hopefully whoever planted it took into account how big it will get. In NC we had one (white flowers) that had a 50’ spread. It was beautiful. Can’t say I’ve seen any nice ones here in FL, they seem to suffer from various insects or funguses.

Anyway, there are a few different types which all grow differently. The white ones have a big spread and the pink and dark colored ones seem to grow more upright. There are even shrub ones.

If you do decide to do a light pruning, make sure you do it right. Don’t leave little nubs or horns, look at the crotch of the area you want to trim, you’ll see some wrinkles in the bark, that’s where you want to cut. Otherwise the tree won’t heal correctly and you will get a lot of new growth from that area. You can look it up on “ You Tube”.

Im thinking spring, before new growth is when to make your cuts.