Crepe myrtles
- Thread starter Squirrel
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Marck
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Greetings, welcome to the Forums.
A photo or two would be of great help here. Anyway, first several questions: Is this Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) a shrub or a standard 'tree'? Is it a grafted cultivar? If so, do you know the name of the cultivar?
If your Crepe Myrtle is a standard, or if it is a grafted cultivar of any shape, you must continue to regularly remove all suckers, so that the plant's growth is not focussed in theri direction. If your plant is a shrub on its own roots, you could consider rejuvenating the shrub my removing the older growth and allowing the new branches (not truly suckers) to take over. In any case, mulch your Crepe Myrtle with a nutritive compost, as well as wood chips or bark. Also give it a further application of a complete fertilizer in Spring. You need to both encourage vigorous growth and make certain that such growth is directed to right part of the plant.
A photo or two would be of great help here. Anyway, first several questions: Is this Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) a shrub or a standard 'tree'? Is it a grafted cultivar? If so, do you know the name of the cultivar?
If your Crepe Myrtle is a standard, or if it is a grafted cultivar of any shape, you must continue to regularly remove all suckers, so that the plant's growth is not focussed in theri direction. If your plant is a shrub on its own roots, you could consider rejuvenating the shrub my removing the older growth and allowing the new branches (not truly suckers) to take over. In any case, mulch your Crepe Myrtle with a nutritive compost, as well as wood chips or bark. Also give it a further application of a complete fertilizer in Spring. You need to both encourage vigorous growth and make certain that such growth is directed to right part of the plant.
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Crepe myrtles can be a bush or a tree all depending on how they are pruned. It appears that whoever pruned it last did so with the intention of having a bush. You can continue that shape or you can prune as many of the stems to ground level as you wish leaving as many or as few stems to be a main trunk. The choice is yours...the plant tolerates pruning well.
Thank you so much for your response. Do they even have to be pruned?
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No, they do bloom better with pruning but not required for the plant necessarily. It's dealers' choice with the Myrtle.