Need help to shape my Crepe Myrtle

[quda]

Hello,

I have a young Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) looking now like this:

It is about 8 yrs old, never trimmed, never adjusted, never pruned.

The idea is that I want to prune and trim it to help it develop it into this:

How to do it?

Thanks in advance,
Q.T.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Plant a multiple for a broader base. I spied this at our dog groomer location. Its a hard pruning of multiple trunks.

 

[DirtMechanic]

These pics are from southern livings' grumpy gardener. You don't want to create a growth knuckle where you have cut every year. Your plant looks to be one of the new dwarf crepes. You will prune very little I imagine. Keep it well fertilized.

 

[Meadowlark]

After it goes dormant this winter, trim it just like the picture you want it to develop into...that is prune to where you want the limbs to be larger. Don't worry about adding multiple trunks...the plant will add those naturally, in fact you already have several. Each succeeding year, prune again to where you want the large branches.

Something like this or higher if you prefer:

 

[quda]

Is it the right moment to do this pruning now ? Here it is a mild weather now, with 5-12°C but frost and snow storm are expected towards the end of the month.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Wait for the temperature inflection, where your multi year average begins to trend up after having trended down toward winter. This is in the climate data for your area. Here in Birmingham Alabama it is mid January. After that we may well have cold snaps but generally everything begins the slow development for spring blooming.