Village Residents Guilty of Crepe Murder!
 

Yes -- I have seen it with my own eyes. My guess is that 95% of the residents here have either hacked their crepe myrtle themselves,
or had their landscape person (I use that term very loosely) do it. Very sad because they have possibly ruined the form of their tree.

There is a difference between pruning a shrub or tree or hacking it to death. The latter is what you will mostly see as you drive and walk around the community.
This is the time of year when a crepe myrtle should be pruned and not the fall or during the winter. But making a crepe myrtle look like a hat rack is shameful.

A crepe myrtle should be pruned similarly to the way a rose bush is pruned.
Think of it as a cup.The inside should be open to let in sunlight and to prevent branches from touching one another.
Clip off all suckers as the base. Better yet -- I'm attaching a video from Southern Living's Grumpy Gardner that will tell you exactly what to do -- and what not do!

http://search.aol.com/aol/video?q=gr...yword_rollover

Now . . . After you watch the above video, click on the video next to that one which will tell you how to fix the damage you've already done.

I was told by a tree expert that cutting them back below the "knuckles" that form is the best thing that you can do to keep them looking good.

I believe that most landscapers will tell you the same thing.

I've had them for five years and have always cut them back in the winter and they come back looking great in the summer.

Thank you for the video Mrs. Robinson, I have never committed myrtlecide, but have gotten close. Crepe Myrtles are very forgiving, but look so much better without knots!

Ours are close to the house so we cut them right back every February. They always come back very nicely.

I can understand not being so brutal to those well away from the building but, even then, it's a matter of personal choice.


Likewise, we leave our palm fronds on even when they are "hanging low" and the bushy effect is very attractive (plus it helps prevent frost damage to the crown).

The only downside is that every passing "gardener" feels the need to ring our doorbell and inform us how useful he could be :-)

No "Knuckles" on Crepe Myrtles, Please!
 

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a different opinion

I am always impressed with the crepe myrtles that are either in the wild or along highways or medians....nobody trims them and they come back beautifully every year.

I also was told, once upon a time for best results remove center branches and growth and do not remove anything larger than a pencil.

That is what I do and the plant grows and flowers perfectly.

To each his own educated preference(s).

If I listened to experts I would never be able to enjoy parmesan crusted grouper because according to the elitists, fish and cheese is a no no.

washed down by a glass of red wine, I trust?

My son leads an industrial landscape team and he calls it Crepe Rape.

From a carton

There was another thread, same title as I recall that has a lot of good info on this subject.

Before/after tree in forefront
 

Attachment 66904Pruning crape myrtles: Clemson University extension (with pictures!)
HGIC 1009 Crape Myrtle Pruning
: Extension : Clemson University : South Carolina

I am trimming the interior branches of my c. myrtle trying to do it the way this article suggests (took me longer than expected to take a picture).

I so agree. They have such a beautiful form when left alone. When harshly pruned, they send out long shoots from the knuckle in the spring, and it looks very ungraceful to me. My opinion, anyway. I leave my two alone except for removing sucker shoots and some very light removal of limbs no thicker than a pencil.

I, too, hate to see Crepe murder and, unfortunately, I am surrounded by it! However, I have three Crepe Myrtles that have never been murdered, just trimmed of their old seed pods. One is a Natchez which is now about 30ft tall and is just a beautiful ornamental shade tree and two much smaller bush Myrtles.

We did have the Natchez professionally pruned last spring and I just love the shape of it now. The Arborist took out all the inner small branches and just left the main branches which opened it up into almost a shade umbrella.

Yes, Madelaine, could you please name the arborist? We have two beautiful crepe trees that could use a professional shaping, but I have been reluctant to call someone for fear they would "murder" them.

I have been using Tree Frog, otherwise known as Kanani Morris. He has done some great work for me over the years, but when I tried to contact him early this spring there was no answer. He may no longer be here in TV.

Just recently, on the recommendation of Garden Club North, I called a really nice young man, Brian Stanage licensed arborist (352-636-3527) to look at a Florida Flame Maple we have. He is very busy, but came and looked and told me to leave the tree alone for now and he would be back in the fall after it loses it's leaves. Nice young man. I was impressed and it's hard to impress me!!!!

Perhaps someone on here knows whether Tree Frog has gone. I do know he was getting more and more work in the Orlando area. He did great work, not cheap, but so worth it.

Back to original subject: Crepe Myrtles.

I knew nothing about this tree until I was an out patient at Mayo in Jacksonville for three years. During the time I was back and forth I used to get lunch and sit on their patio. They have a beautiful sitting area and the main planting is their Myrtles. They are absolutely huge, almost as tall as the building and beautifully shaped. They look like ornamental living umbrellas. That is when I fell in love with Myrtles. Mine is about 9 or 10 years old now and I just love it. It is my back patio shade tree, but it is really dirty once it starts to drop it's seed pods. If you are not up to sweeping your patio once a day it is not the tree for you!

My other half does not like it as much as I do because of the mess~:cus:

Thank you. I watched the video and it is very informative.
Have a Great week...😎

As my very good Parisian friend always said, "Red wine goes with everything"!!!

The original article in Southern Living back in the 90's called it "Crape Murder". There are varieties of this tree that do not grow tall if it's height people are trying to control, but the severe cutting is shocking to see. The resulting branches will be spindly and easily broken with bad weather. The key is to prune branches that are growing TOWARD the center of the tree and leave the ones that grow outward. It saddens me each year when I see these trunks hacked off at the knuckles. The end result is not beautiful.

So wrong. There is no wrong way to trim it. I have over 100 crepe myrtles on my other property up in Ocala. Been cutting them over 20 years. Here is what I have learned.
If you don't trim them yearly, the branches grow tall and stringy by the second year.
You can't hurt them by any way you cut them. I've trimmed them with hand cutters and also a small chainsaw.
You can't hurt them if you chop them off at any length but keep in mind if you leave the knob it will be fuller.
You can trim them any time.....they are like a weed...you can not kill it. I have trimmed them before winter, during winter, spring...doesn't matter, though I usually cut them in March. I've tried to kill one by cutting it to the ground, but it doesn't work.
So do your thing and enjoy the results.

Thanks for this!!!! My husband and I did notice other neighbors' crepe myrtles and wondered if what they did is what we should be doing because ours never seem to have an abundance of flowers. We will follow the Grumpy Gardner's advice!

Thanks again, Cathy

Oh, no. NO!
 

Mother Nature never intended them to be pruned at all so any method is incorrect.

Thanks for this education. I am the new owner of a crepe myrtle that came with my house. A landscaper did tell me to lop ff the top. I won't now. What about the new growth growing from the ground???

There is an abundance of information on line on how to grow, prune and shape various Crepe Myrtles. You probably should first start by finding out whether you have a bush or a tree myrtle (all this information you can find online), there is a big difference in how you can shape a tree from a bush type. Tree myrtles like mine (White Natchez) get treated entirely differently from my bush myrtles and even my two bush myrtles need different pruning techniques to keep them looking their best. If you drive through the various shopping centers in TV you will find myrtles everywhere, in all different colors and shapes, and that should give you a start as to what you have. Tree myrtles grow in an entirely different way to bush types.

The one thing I would emphasize is please do not lop off the top because you are never ever going to get rid of those really ugly knuckles afterwards.

I reject your reality and substitute my own. And just for the record, the word "never" is modifying the word "intended" not "be pruned".

I hate to see Crepe Murder and Crepe Rape. However, it's your tree so if you want to mutilate it, that's your choice.

Questions
 

I'm far from an expert but-
It seems to me in this video he is leaving far larger stubs then I do. His stumps look to be 1/2 an inch long I try to make mine about half that. When, I use bypass pruning sheers or lopping sheers I always have the cutting blade turned toward the trunk or the part of the branch that will be left behind.

I do not know what variety I have as it was planted by the builder. It was about 7-8 foot high three years ago and it is now about 10 foot high. No trouble to prune on a ladder or with my pole pruner.

i'm no expert but
 

Compared to the instructions you attached and the video in the original post, your crape myrtle could use a fair amount of pruning to open it up.

I agree. My hands can take only so much at a time.

Re: More flowers then yours
 

1. They may have a different variety.
2. Yours might be getting hit with lawn fertilizer. The high nitrogen will cause more leaf growth then flowers.

I would put bad Myrtle pruning on my short list of not a big deal. Do-it-yourselfer stacking walls with no homeowner concept of level or plumb make it to my top 3 eye sores.

Re: Nature
 

Many, in fact most of the plants we grow are not found in nature. Corn which is about 60% of our food calories-fed to animals in addition to the little bit we eat, cannot even live in the wild. Wild corn has been hybridized for centuries. I does grow wild but, we would not even know what it is. Citrus can be found wild. It is loaded with seeds and far more bitter than we would want to eat. There are some wild or semi wild pecan trees around. I expect they were planted from seeds rather then a grafted cutting. In any case the nuts are less than half the size of what we are used to.

TO: Bjeanj re: hands can only take so much
 

Not sure what you have said.
If, you are finding pruning any plant requires a great deal of strength, you are either using the wrong tool, using a dull tool, using a low quality tool or using the tool incorrectly.

First of all, you should have a set of hand pruners, a set of lopping pruners-long handle types, To sharpen a set of pruning sheers-look it up on the internet if, you have never done it. The angles are important. To shallow an angle will be sharper but with the pressure the blade will quickly dull.
You can find some very inexpensive tools. There is a reason they are cheeeeep. Good tools will last a lifetime if well cared for. My pruning sheers belonged to my grandmother. I don't think they are that old but the patent date is 1898 and I've used them for ?????? 40 years.
Once you have good tools and they are sharp, realize when you cut meat to eat you do not push the knife straight down and expect it to cut, you slide the knife. With a slight turning motion of your wrist as you make a cut, you will find you get a much better cut and it takes less effort.
If, you as I do will be cutting branches into small pieces and putting them into one of those bags, try starting at the end of the branch-let the tree hold it and then make the final cut at the trunk

The trip of a thousand miles starts with the first step.
Find out what you can do-10-20 or and do that every day.
It is getting hot-best time to work is morning or evening.

HAPPY DAYS

of course what you say is true but
 

There is nothing NATURAL about our landscaping.
Heck, most of the plants we grow have been created through hybridizing by man.

Suesiegel, thanks for the super tips. I never had a real lesson in lopping, and I have not been doing it correctly, and possibly with unsharpened tools. Much appreciated!