'crepe' or 'crape' myrtle?
phillip_in_alabama
17 years ago
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inkognito
17 years agoeddie1
17 years agoRelated Discussions
Help! My crepe (crape) myrtle tree wants to be a bush!
Comments (6)Reluctantartist, The correct spelling of crape myrtle is with an "a". As ltruett's link indicates, this may not be the best choice for the style of tree you want, and you might be better off replacing it with one that has a more naturally vertical form. You could however do a lot to encourage your 'Acoma' to grow into a tree form. Proper pruning and maybe even staking the plant could result in a form more like what you seek. If you leave the plant alone, like you are doing now, I don't think you can expect it to take on the form you want. You should probably make a decision to either replace it or work with it and manage its form....See MoreJumping to conclusions...
Comments (13)Thank you, Ken for the information about the pot. We are currently looking for a 25" pot to transplant it into (it is currently in a 15" pot and I agree it's too small), while we have not been looking at black pots, I will make sure that one my wife finally picks will be of a 'cool' color. Until we find one, I will find a way to shade this pot from the sun. Unfortunately, we will not be planting this one in-ground. We are looking at moving in about 2-3 years and since this was a birthday gift for my wife, who had wanted a Crape Myrtle ever since she first moved to Florida, we're going to be taking it with us and planting it at the new house. If we put it in the ground here, the park we're in will not allow us to dig it back up. Screwed up rules, I agree, but I agreed to live by them when we moved in, never dreaming at the time that I would get into gardening and plants. But yes, you are correct, I did some research a year ago and found out that here in Florida, fall is definitely the best time to plant new trees. Planting them in spring is supposedly a good way to have a fried young tree once summer kicks into full swing. So we tend to have our own little Arbor Day in October or November. The oak in the background is my neighbor's and let's just say I would not trust them to leave the Crape alone if I placed it closer to their yard (They think that Mountain Sorrel is a flower suitable for funerals and that same oak is digging holes in their roof and they like it that way). Being a disabled vet, I have pretty open days and water the tree on a daily basis with collected rainwater, or when I can put my index finger 1 1/2 - 2 inches into the soil and not feel moisture. I have also collected root suckers from this tree and gotten them started in their own, smaller pots. These I will end up planting in-ground when they are big enough. Also thank you for your information, Rhizo. Your insight into the nature of cuttings vs seedlings has me really wondering which this tree came from. I asked the person who purchased this tree where she got it from and she said she picked it up from an Open Country Grocer that I am familiar with, basically it is a really nice road-side vegetable stand but with all the amenities of a grocery store. She had asked them if they had any Crape Myrtles and they showed her this one and another one that had 6 trunks. There were no labels or anything on them and, at the time, neither had put out any leaf buds. So it was kind of a crape-shoot on if she was actually getting a Crape Myrtle or not. But since my wife was wanting a 'tree' variety and not the stemmy shrub variety, this one was purchased. Now that my curiosity is growing, I have a related question: Is it possible, if this is two trunks grafted together, that one tree could inherit the traits of the tree it is grafted to? Or do the trunks tend to stay fairly true to themselves and just share a root system?...See MoreSept. Stuff
Comments (10)So sorry to hear that you gardners in the eastern part of PA are so dry. Here in the middle western part we suffered drought also. The rain/storms were so close at times that we could smell them. But all either broke up or went north or south of Butler county. Katrina who brought so much misery to the Gulf States gave this area a good full 24+ hours of much needed soaking rains. Still yesterday when DH dug down about a foot (with that shiny new tractor/back hoe) in the process of transplanting 2 mature shrubs it was bone dry. Sure hope you get rain soon, but it doesn't look good. I think we will be back to watering the 'this year' trees and shrubs by the end of the week....See MoreCrepe/Crape? Myrtle Propagation Help with Setup
Comments (3)I've used to strike a lot of crepe myrtles & had good luck with both spring & fall slips. Rooted under a simple mister ("porch cooler" from Lowe's) in full sun. I treated them like rose cuttings--slightly wounding through the bark on the bottom 1" or so, used a coarse media of blasting sand #3 & coir. Perhaps the biggest difference is I always used a strong commercial hormone--Rhizopon #3--.8% IBA. It makes a big improvement for me when I try to root woody plants like roses & crepe myrtles. Hope this is useful....See MoreTonyfromOz
17 years agoronalawn82
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16 years agoHousePlantz
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