Crape Myrtle....

[svengoli123]

Hi,

I planted this Catawamba last year (Zone 7). It seems to be budding now a little (is this late?). Should I prune this? If so, what do I prune? It looks kinda bad at the moment. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Chuck]

Catawba crepe myrtles grow to at least 15 feet tall and at a minimum 10 feet wide. You have three choices. Remove the fence or move the tree. If you want to keep the tree where it is you will have to remove any and all branches that are not facing your lawn up to and a little above the top op the fence. Then you have to put up with the complaining neighbors. To make it simple you just bought the wrong variety of CM. There is a very nice purple CM that is a ground cover and grows to about a foot tall named New Orleans and there is another purple CM that grows to about 2 or 3 feet named Mardi Gras. You could get away with planting either of these two next to a fence but not a Catawba.

 

[svengoli123]

This is in the back of the yards, so neighbors are not an issue. What do you think about the health of the little guy.

 

[Chuck]

This is in the back of the yards, so neighbors are not an issue. What do you think about the health of the little guy.

Neighbors may not be an issue but that fence is. As far as the health goes all I can tell for sure is that the bottom of the main trunk is still alive. There should be leaf buds showing on the limbs. Make sure that the limbs and the upper trunk is still alive by getting a knife and scraping a little of the bark off of them. If it shows any green at all it's alive and if it's still alive all you can do is be patient. If no green is visible and it is brown that part of the tree is dead.

 

[svengoli123]

I will move it further from the fence. Can I wait for the buds to show,m and then remove the limbs with no buds?

 

[Chuck]

I will move it further from the fence. Can I wait for the buds to show,m and then remove the limbs with no buds?

Lets say you have moved the tree. A CM normally has shoots coming up towards the bottom of the tree. Do not cut these off because a CM is a weak wooded plant and can easily break during a high wind. You can easily find out now but if you want to wait until it buds before pruning the dead wood you can. If it were my tree I would scratch the bark now. You know that the bottom of the tree is alive. As far as I can see the only thing alive are those new limbs forming at the bottom. That growth should turn into the 4 or 5 upright portions of the tree. In a couple of years you can prune off any of these shoots you want. Take some closeup pictures of the limbs and I can tell more about it.