Crepe Myrtles
 

I purchased two nice Crepe Myrtle Trees from Fairfield Farms Nursery. (Watermelon Red, 5-6 inch trunk) While golfing yesterday, I was told you should trim back tree each year to get more flowering!! Does anyone know about this? I love the look of these trees, and how long the flowers last for the whole summer. Thanks:wave:

PapaLarry...There was a thread on this and I think it was called Crepe Murder...about trimming them back. Half did, half did not think it was the thing to do. We did, the guy next door did not. We are waiting to see when they bloom who wins. I think it may be too late now to trim them and you could cut off where they will blossom.

When it's bloomin' time I will report on ours.

Thanks Gracie!!! Just heard this yesterday, and thought I would ask.

There is a right way and a wrong way to trim them back, and I don' know how

We cut off their little berries/little round things:shrug: at the top.:D

They are very hard to kill...no matter what you do they will grow...I dug up mine & replanted it & chopped it down to nothing, it grew bigger than before!!

Trim about 1/3 of the branch length when the tree is dormant each winter. Blooms occur on new growth in the spring and summer. Don't cut the branches all the way back to the main stem. That's what is called crepe murder.

I have read some websites about trimming. Basically, trimming is recommended, to a degree. Like anything else it can be overdone. You want to trim them just enough to prevent the branches from getting so long they sag. Whenever I think about overdoing things I think of my father. He overdid everything. It was the German in him. :2excited:

PapaLarry....Here is great site to tell you about pruning Crape Myrtles, also has some good illustrations.

How To Prune A Crape Myrtle

We actually cut ours back more severely this year because I don't like the long "leggy" look of the trunks with just the tops having leaves. Prefer more leaves and less trunk. I was concerned, but not only did it come back, but it came back fuller and is still growing! My hubby is just amazed how they come back. We cut ours back in March. We even have a baby one that has sprouted beside the big one. It came up last summer and this year is about 2 feet tall so far. Waiting for the trunks to get a bit larger to transplant.

If you have Japanese beetles down there (we are still in SC), I strongly recommend using a systemic pesticide on them because Crape Myrtles are one of the beetles fav food. The one year I didn't use it you could actually hear them munching on the leaves as you walked past, and the tree seemed to "move" with them. It was disgusting and they would fall out of the tree all over the ground and all over you if you were standing near it. I use the Bayer Advanced granules and put it on in the winter.

I've had Crape Myrtle's for the last 25 years and if you want them to really bloom they must be cut back in the winter. The blooms only come on the new growth and they look better if they have some shape to them, to me anyway. I had both types the tree that grows tall and the bush type that only gets about 3 feet tall.

Thanks so much. I will remember that in late fall, winter:bowdown:

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!!! I'll make sure I don't "Crepe Murder" them. They look good already, and hope to see blooms in a few weeks.:BigApplause::bigbow:

omigosh. Sis!

Read an article in the paper that said not to trim them until late Feb.

Dormant time is when to shape and trim them. Just look at how nice the mature trees are on the golf courses and public roadways. However we learned (and it works) that if you trim the flower heads off when the flowers fall, so that the green seed pods don't develop, the tree will bloom again about 6 weeks later, and depending on the timing you can force a 3rd flowering.

Crepe Myrtles are in full bloom and look so nice when we look out window. Glad I purchased them and will take everyones advice about when and how to trim them for next year, in order to get them bigger and fuller. Thanks again everyone

Apparently we trimmed them at the wrong time. Ours aren't blooming like our neighbors who did NOT trim them.

We have lilac colored ones. I love the watermelon colored ones.

When they arrived from Fairfield Farms, I had them dig hole deep enough for one bag of bark mulch, to hold the water. Apparently it worked good. Also fed them before covering up hole. But its what we wanted, two nice myrtle trees to look at from kitchen window. Dug up about a 160 sq ft of lawn, (full of bermuda anyway) and bagged each week for pick up on wednesday. I bet at least 30 bags when done. Put vinyl trim around and layed plastic, and then bark mulch. So now we are "Happy" Watermelon Red

Crepe Myrtles
 

Papa, here in Texas we prune ours the third week in February. That's what we were told by a very reputable garden center.

Yes, so I found out. I definetly will do that, and making sure I only trim half of the branch as suggested by everyone. Hopefully I'll even get better blooms next year. I take it, these blooms will last all summer?

That they do, PaPaLarry!! All summer long!!

My trees suffered badly from the frost of winter, so I trimmed the dead stuff off after the frost was over. Doing that, increased a lot of inner growth which I didn't want, as I like the tall, lean look. So after my landscaping was done a few months ago, I trimmed all the inner growth and cut back some branches about a foot. Gave them a good amount of Miracle Grow a few weeks ago and they are blooming like crazy. Beautiful shade of deep rose. Unfortunately, some of the branches are heavy with blooms and are drooping, so come fall, I will cut them back even more (way before frost hits) and we'll see what happens next spring. They are pretty hardy and it will be tough to do real damage to them but the point is to increase the blooms without creating a drooping tree.

I love doing this, its a labor of love.

See Crepe Myrtle Pruning Step-by-Step - The Grumpy Gardener - SouthernLiving.com Crepe Myrtle Pruning Step by Step (by Southern Living's garden editor Steve Bender)