A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Prune a Crepemyrtle

How do you prune a crepemyrtle? I want like an umbrella look? Mine is about 3 feet high already. Do i start at the bottom and work up? Do i prune now or wait till winter? Please help!!

The best time to prune your crape myrtle is in early spring right before it starts to leaf out. If you do it now you will lose this year's blooms. If you wait til fall it may not have enough time to recover before winter.

Yep, I'm with Alan. There's an old rule of thumb that goes something like this: If it blooms in spring (i.e. lilacs), prune in early summer. If it blooms in summer (as crape myrtles do), prune in early spring.

It shouldn't matter whether you prune top to bottom or vice versa, but don't take off more than a third of the total number of branches. In other words, if there are 24 branches, cut off only 8 this next spring. You can do another third the following spring, if you have to. Cut off each branch as close as you can to the main trunk, leaving just the little collar where the branch sprouts off from the main trunk. That will help the myrtle heal nicely.

The umbrella shape is nice. Very Japanese! Good luck.