Is it too late to trim crape mrytle in late March?

[LGY]

I am in zone 9b near Sacramento California. My almost 1 year in ground crape mrytle has not produce any new growth or leaf yet. It’s very young, looks like you can snap into two with one hard pull... Is it too late to trim the branches now? I just learned that they only grow on new words so my original idea of not trim the first two year might be silly now...

I also cannot tell if the bottom ones are water sprouts or it is trying to do multi trunk (since it is so skinny)...

any advice?

thanks

 

[Logan]

I don't know much about this plant so here's a video that might help.

 

[LGY]

thank you Logan. This definitely helps. He is trimming even though it started growing / leafing, so it is definitely safe to prune now. The other thing he said is it don’t have to be trimmed, so I might do a bit now give it is so late in spring and still need to wait it grow a bit to determine if the piece is multi or water sprouts.

thanks again

I don't know much about this plant so here's a video that might help.

 

[Logan]

thank you Logan. This definitely helps. He is trimming even though it started growing / leafing, so it is definitely safe to prune now. The other thing he said is it don’t have to be trimmed, so I might do a bit now give it is so late in spring and still need to wait it grow a bit to determine if the piece is multi or water sprouts.

thanks again

Your welcome and yes that will be a good thing.

 

[cpp gardener]

Prune it any time you want. I just finished pruning ours in our Japanese Garden.

 

[LGY]

Thank you. I just pruned it today and noticed some tiny leave buds, which gave me a good guide of how much I could trim

added before and after shot. Hopefully not too bad.

 

[cpp gardener]

Looks about right
You could take off the bottom branches if you want it to be more tree-like.

 

[LGY]

Hi,

I am struggling on if I should removed them or not. The tree provided by the builder is right at 8 feet away from that window/ wall. There is a solar panel right above the tree, on the roof the floor above.

I have been reading that if I allow multiple trunk, it will be shorter/bushier and not as tall. Not sure if true or myth...

Basically the problem is lack of clearance from the house. The HOA requires a tree there. Any advise on single or 3 trunks?

And yea I don’t know what specific species it is besides it’s a crape myrtle...


thanks

Looks about right
You could take off the bottom branches if you want it to be more tree-like.