Somebody call 911! We just witnessed a murder! And ANOTHER one! Well, maybe we are being a bit dramatic since we aren’t talking about human lives, we are talking about Crape Murder! Another Crape Myrtle pruning season is behind us and the evidence is everywhere.
Crape Myrtles are some of the toughest, most hardy and beautiful trees we can grow here in North Texas. Their blooms brighten up our streets for nearly half a year, their trunks are a naturally elegant array and are smooth to the touch. They require nearly no supplemental irrigation and can truly be left alone for years and will perform again and again, season after season.
Ugly Stumps
For years the trend of butchering/killing Crape Myrtles seems to be increasing dramatically in North Texas. Please don’t ask us why, because there truly isn’t a single convincing reason to treat one of the most beautiful trees we can find in Texas with the utmost disrespect. As a professional landscaper, we are constantly angered to see how these elegant trees are butchered right in front of our eyes by other so-called professional gardeners and landscape companies.
Each time a Crape Myrtle is butchered it leaves terrible scars that will be visible and quite ugly for the rest of the tree’s life. Every time it gets cut back it creates an army of smaller branches which distorts the balance, and proportion of the tree. Topping Crape Myrtles doesn't create larger blooms as many believe, so why does this practice continue? What we have done is create an array of smaller branches that struggle to support the weight of it's blooms. If you repeat that process just a couple of times you will end with a droopy, weeping, sad looking tree that can no longer keep its head high in pride, as the beautiful Crape Myrtle should.
What Proper Pruning Looks Like
Here are three great examples of proper Crape Myrtle pruning which follow these guidelines;
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Prune in late winter; February is ideal
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Interior cleaning; remove suckers at the base, crossing or rubbing branches, and branches growing inward toward the center of the plant
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As the tree grows, gradually remove all side branches from the main trunks up to a height of 5 feet or so
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Cut back to another branch, to just above an outward-facing bud on a branch, or to the branch collar (a swollen area where the branch joins the trunk); never leave lone or clustered stubs
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Try to remove unwanted branches before they get thicker than a pencil
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It's okay but unnecessary to cut off old seedheads
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