Crepe Myrtle question

We replant sprouts all the time and they do beautifully. Sooner or later, you get too many, though. DH dug up six of them (big ones) at a daughter's home. Brought them to our house, bare roots and all. Took him about a month to get them replanted, and they all lived. Crepes are very hearty!

As for trimming the faded blooms, we do that to the best of our ability. Mosts of our trees are now just too high to reach the top, even with a ladder. We do trim as many as we can, because they cause the limbs to droop when they get heavy with the seeds, and because we don't want little crepes sprouting up all over the lawn.

Good lurk - it's hard to go wrong with a crepe myrtle.

I love crepe myrtles -- what color are yours? I have lavender and a pinkish/red. My crepe myrtles have sprouted several new ones, and I intended to dig them up and transplant them before they got too big. But life got in the way, and now they're too big to dig up. If I were you, I would wait until fall when they go dormant. If you don't want to wait, go ahead and dig the hole where you're going to move it so it's not out of the ground very long. Then dig a fairly good sized root ball so you don't damage it....I once transplanted two 6 foot tall crepe myrtles in the middle of growing season and didn't kill them!

I trim my crepe myrtles in the fall after the blooms and leaves have fallen off, or you can wait until early spring before they start to sprout. You can control how big they get by how far back you cut them. The new branches grow so fast and so long that you'll hardly know you cut them...one of mine has reached over the roof line at one end of my house, and since I'm afraid the branches might damage the edge of the roofing material in a strong wind, I cut them back drastically. The new growth will sprout in the spring, and by the time they're ready to bloom, the new branches can grow as much as 4 feet or more.

I hope you have someone to do the digging for you!

I've a question for the crepe myrtle owners-- do the flowers bloom on the previous year's wood or the current year's wood?

Here where I am, they are marginally hardy and are one of the last trees to leaf out (maybe in June?) They bloom in later summer by us.

On 6/24/2014 JustJazzmom said:

I've a question for the crepe myrtle owners-- do the flowers bloom on the previous year's wood or the current year's wood?

Here where I am, they are marginally hardy and are one of the last trees to leaf out (maybe in June?) They bloom in later summer by us.

They bloom on either or both. If I don't cut mine back, they bloom beautifully, but they get very big and tall. Even when I cut them back drastically, and I mean back to the larger upright branches so there is not a sprout on them anywhere, they still sprout out, they are very full, and bloom beautifully that way as well. It just depends on how big you want them to be. They can grow as big as a small to medium size tree, but if you cut them back each year, you can keep them to a large/tall shrub height-meaning 12-15 feet.

As I said in my earlier post, it's best to trim or cut them back in the fall, after the blooms have died and the leaves have fallen, or in very early spring, before the leaves start to bud out and new growth starts. I have done it after the new growth has started, and they still bloom but maybe not quite as full as they would have been if I had done it earlier. I'm in NC and there are crepe myrtles everywhere -- I've had some of mine for 15-20 years, but they have sent up shoots and additional ones have grown up as well.

Thank you all for your replies. Kittymom, my crepes are a medium pink color, although I like all of the colors. I have seen some in our town that are white, and they are blooming profusely this year. I guess this weekend, I'm going to try to replant that baby crepe!!

On 6/24/2014 JustJazzmom said:

I've a question for the crepe myrtle owners-- do the flowers bloom on the previous year's wood or the current year's wood?

Here where I am, they are marginally hardy and are one of the last trees to leaf out (maybe in June?) They bloom in later summer by us.

That is the same for us. We planted 2 late last summer. We were afraid they did not survive the brutal winter. We had NOTHING until early June and the growth was strictly from the root. They are now growing well but are still only about 3' tall. I do not remember what colors we chose so if and when they bloom, it will be a surprise.

I love Crepe Myrtles and have them all over my yard. They are just now blooming here and mine are called red, but are basically a watermelon color (reddish pink) which I love!

Southern Living magazine always has information in regard to Crepe Myrtles by their Grumpy Gardner!