[paulat585]

What are the pros and cons of doing this? I had it cut back once a year for the first 2 years I lived here but last year let it go. It looks like its about 15 feet tall. It still looked beautiful this year. It is in between my house and my neighbor's, about 10 feet from each house. Won't overhang any roofs. Thanks.

[villagetinker]

I turn ours into a bush every year, and it comes back as a tree by November, I am getting ready to remove it....

[Pondboy]

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.

[Ozzello]

Pros to cutting back every spring:
Blooms are much larger.
Less "old wood" to treat for lichen and ball moss.
You can effectively keep you tree less than 20ft tall, by trimming back to around 6ft every year and not end up with a 30ft+ tree dropping blooms and leaves in your gutter.

Cons:
Some people will make fun of you.
It will never become a shade tree, unless you decide to stop cutting back. Yes, you can change your mind later, and start or stop cutting back in the spring.

For new young CM owners, if your CM is fairly bug and lichen free, I suggest allowing your tree to grow a few years before you begin yearly cut backs.

Owners of the red leafed/crimson blooming "Firecracker" type trees... good luck, not much you can do or not do to get what I would call a healthy looking, attractively blooming specimen.

[Marathon Man]

I "murder" my two trees every March. They look great throughout the summer and fall. And, since I am not looking for shade, I am keeping them a decorative size.

[CFrance]

This is what I don't like about pollarded crape myrtle: (From Steve Bender, aka Grumpy Gardner, for Southern Living Magazine) "Repeated pruning to the same point creates gnarled, knobby "knuckles" on the ends of the trunks. In short order, a thicket of long, weak, whiplike branches sprouts from each knuckle. These whips are too weak to support the flowers and hang straight down like cooked spaghetti." I've seen this on trees in this area. To me they no longer look like trees.

He goes on to point out that many people trim their crape myrtles to keeping them from becoming too big for the spot they're in, instead of finding a different type of crape myrtle that will fit the spot.