A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Crepe Myrtles

Hello

I have 8 crepe myrtles in my front yard. They are 2 yrs old. I am new to gardening and did not know about pruning so I plan to do this year and of course will need some advice there. The reason I am writing is that out of the 8 there were two that did not flower. The leaves are trimmed in brownish reddish and look dead and have since spring. I have noticed new growth ( a sprig on the top of one tree and on the other lots of new growth and buds. Any ideas? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Hi there and welcome to the forum, I'm moving your post to the plants and flowers section so it gets more responses....Glad you found us!

Laura

ok, crepe myrtles i know something about.

prune them in the late fall, or very early spring. cut inward facing, crossing branches. DO NOT CHOP THEIR HEADS OFF! if you need to control how tall it gets, gently top off the top branches.

feed it well in the spring and again in early to mid summer.

the brown tips on your leaves are probably due to not enough moisture in the air. in fact, i was surprised you have crepe myrtle in las vegas as they are really moisture & humidity loving trees.

as for the lack of blooms, all bloom on new growth, but sometimes, if they are "settling in" or don't get enough food or water, they take longer to bloom. mine is 2 and didn't bloom either, but i'm confident that next year it will.

oh yeah, and if you want a tree form, instead of a large tree-like bush, cut the branches that form along the bottom of the trunk.

I have some Crepe Myrtles that are six years old and bloom very little. I am in Nashville, TN zone 6. I read where they like acid so I gave them some osmocote fertilizer for acid plants and they bloomed better than any year I have had them.

The trimming information is valuable as the first year we committed what Southern Living magazine called "Crepe Murder" by cutting the plant back one third.

Thanks

I sprinkle used coffee grinds on my crepe myrtle once a week during the spring the first time I loosen the dirt somewhat and work it in after that just on top of the ground and they bloom beautifully, they really seem to love it. In the late fall I trim it back so it doesn't grow bushy in the spring I want the branches to start at about 5ft from the ground so everything below that GOES!