Crepe Myrtle shedding bark question??
utdeedee
16 years ago
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Amazindirt (7a TN)
16 years agoutdeedee
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Question on Crepe Myrtles
Comments (6)Crape Myrtle Seeds fall off the trees and grow pretty easily. You may actually be pruning back separate plants that have sprouted up from seed. You may want to try to dig some of the shoots up and plant them someplace different..That is if you want more Crape Myrtles in your yard..I am working on my young ones too with the desire for them to look like the ones I see in beautifully landscaped areas around the City. Mine are little about 4 ft tall right now...I do have on white one that is about 6ft tall..I trimmed it back cutting every branch that was less then 2 inches thick..Leaving 5 shoots..Then I clipped off all the little branches from those shoots about 3ft up the plant..I did not prune the top at all...I want the plant to get tall..Mine are the kind that get 10-15 ft tall. I harvested some of the seeds and, have baby Crape Myrtles growing in my makeshift indoor nursery..I turned my second bathroom into a plant nursery, by adding a plant light and some extra heat and humidity... I have noticed that the Crape Myrtles I am watching (on someone elses landscaped area) are pruned back in fall with all the seed pods being removed..I never cut off the seed pods I just leave them untrimmed til spring..Then I just prune off the remaining dried up seed pods.. Good Luck......See MoreCrepe Myrtle Questions
Comments (4)Hi, I live in Mojave. I wouldn't put your crepe myrtle in the ground until September. In August, it's just too hot: the only thing I'd plant would be maybe cactus. Depending on the size of the crepe myrtle, you could make the hardware cloth cylinder like lazygarden recommended (works great by the way). Later on or if the tree is taller, I've had good luck with just wrapping an 18-inch tall cylinder of chicken wire pretty close to the trunk a few times. You don't even need to secure it, as long as it's pretty close to the trunk. I did this with some afghan pines the jackrabbits were eating the bark off of a couple of years ago and it still works fine. You don't see the chicken wire until you're really close. Good luck!!...See MoreCrepe Myrtle question...
Comments (15)Ha ha ! Be careful with the word murder ? Some people may not be clear . Although I think it is what it is . I think people see others topping so they believe it is the thing to do . If more landscapers enjoyed their jobs we would have more diverse landscapes instead of a sea of green with lots of irrigated turf . I have never seen anyone top Lagerstroemia fauriei . This is by far the most cold hardy being that it is a mountain variety . The cultivar 'Townhouse' is the best . the bark is so red .'Fantasy' has the tendency to not want to shut down . We have an unamed cultivar that has the darkest bark out of any I have seen , but it wants to keep growing into winter . Fine for now . It seems odd that everywhere is flooded ( figuratively speaking ) with hybids for flower color instead of more year round interest like the bark . The only drawback to fauriei is that it needs room . The ones at JCRA( Raleigh )are incredible . That place is a wealth of knowledge and beauty . I still can not beleive that Todd is not there . 'Acoma' is cool . Is anyone growing anything with limii (hybrids or straight species ) ? 'Cheyenne and 'Arapaho' the 3 way hybrids are going through their first winter here . These will be readily available in 2006 .The new Razzle Dazzle series from UGA and McCorkle will be out next year as well . Everyone will want these for containers and 8 weeks of flowering . Cherry Dazzle -red , Dazzle Me Pink -pink , Snow Dazzle-white , and Ruby Dazzle - pink with re-purple foliage . Be on the lookout and everyone please try fauriei ....See MoreQuestion about Natchez Crepe Myrtle
Comments (6)There's no real way of knowing what Lowe's is calling a 10' Natchez :-) My experience with Lowe's in our area has been they are similar to the best local nurseries with type/cultivar tag accuracy, but size info on trees and shrubs is often underestimated. Can't find the thread where someone had speculated their "mature" tree size estimates seem to be for about 10 year old plants... which can be quite misleading for ones that will live 50 or more years. Might not be 'Natchez', but my guess would be that the cultivar is right and the size estimate is way off. Cultivar, species, or even genus mistakes can happen anywhere... but do seem to occur more for me at some other big box retailers :-) The website of the Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney Foundation founded by Neil Sperry is worth exploring. No surprise that 'Natchez' and 'Acoma' are both included on their Best Crape Myrtles by Size list, but just noticed they have 'Acoma' tagged as a spreading 10ft tall variety..... oh well. Great choice on CM as the only tree for a small yard. Bark is especially interesting and beautiful this year as it peels and pops off the trunks due to growth from the wet spring. Most of ours give surprisingly vivid and reliable fall color in north Texas - though don't remember this quite as much in Houston. And, of course, those wonderful long-blooming flowers. Edit: Didn't mean to imply that Lowe's might really be using a 10 year age for the size estimate - gist the thread if I remember correctly was that the estimates appear to be all over the place, but wrong on the low side was pretty common....See Morejustintn_z7
16 years agobehaviorkelton
16 years agoutdeedee
16 years agoljbaack
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Amazindirt (7a TN)