How are you watering it? Is it mulched? Raised beds will dry out faster than grade-level beds. To ensure that enough water gets to the root ball, put a dripping hose under it, and let it drip for a few hours, then check with your finger or a trowel to see how deeply the soil was saturated.

Mulch also helps to retain moisture. Wilt-pruf is usually used on broadlead evergreens in winter to prevent desiccation, I've never heard of using it on a deciduous plant in summer.

Worst case, dig it up, inspect the roots, and replant at grade if possible.

saypoint - believe it or not, on the Wilt Pruf label, it does mention "other ornamentals" and indicates use for reducing stress on plants growing under drought conditions (including dessication from wind) and for transplanting (spring, summer, fall). I understand that a number of growers use it (eg., I expect for digging up leafed-out shrubs of any kind to be balled and burlapped).

The roots of your crape myrtle will eventually grow out laterally in all directions. As someone mentioned above, the best thing you can do for the first year is to lay the end of a hose on the rootball and let it drip as long as necessary in order to keep it from drying out. This is best done at night, since in the heat we will be having soon, during the day more water will evaporate than will soak into the soil.

I do have the shrub mulched pretty well, and I've been giving it a good soaking about every other day. The rest of the raised bed seems to retain moisture pretty well (it's only about 8" high, and sometimes I wonder if it holds too much water). I just worry that the roots might be bound up so tight they won't ever get loose from that mass. I've involved SO much time and money into this project that I'd hate to kill all these pretty plants.

How long should I give them to establish before considering saypoint's advice about digging them up?

thanks again!!

If there wasn't a heatwave going on in your part of the country, I'd say dig it up now, try to break up the roots, replant, and water well to get it out of the way and let it get started on the new feeders as soon as possible.

I suppose technically you could still do it now but you would perhaps want to make sure that you just lay that hose in the mass once it is replanted (and keep it freely watered for the rest of the season). You'd need to prepare for some leaf droop and drop, although sometimes using some of those transplant products might help. They do continually grow leaves until frost so it should recover.

Alternately, I've mused about getting a pitch fork and sinking it down near the root mass and wriggling around to loosen it up but since this is a new permanent planting, might as well try to get it on the right track as early as you can.

If you really are soaking it every other day, you may be overwatering. Do you know for a fact that the rootball is dry?

Interesting about the Wilt Pruf. I've never actually used it, but thought that the coating it puts on the foliage wouldn't be good in summer, but I guess it's OK.

Pull up and plunge in clean water until bubbles stop rising, replant with roots pulled open a bit to encourage establishment and reduce deformity (kinking, circling). If actually wet rather than dry there will be little bubbling and can be taken out of water and put back right away.

If able to keep on top of watering and mulching after planting barerooting at planting actually best, this would be harder to pull off during extra hot weather. In USDA 6 and above autumn planting--when plants have high energy reserves, roots are elongating the most of the whole year and temperatures are moderating--is best, spring next best. Summer and winter are the most stressful times, summer it may get real hot right after planting; winter an Arctic Front may blow in and kill new plantings before any rooting out occurs (and root growth in winter is minimal).

So in other words, I probably should wait until it cools off a bit, and then pull it up and replant bareroot? Just want to make sure I understand what I need to do.

I have a moisture gauge that I use to check all my plants, and the root ball of this one particular crape myrtle does indeed dry out even when the surrounding soil is wet. the edges of its leaves are starting to get crispy!!

I'm pretty sure most of my other shrubs have been planted in the same way. Should I think about digging them up too and replanting, or just leave them alone? So far all the others seem to be doing okay.

The Lagerstroemia is dying, you need to lift it now and get it moist. I would open the roots up a bit, enough to correct at least part of the circling but I wouldn't try to expose the entire root system under the current circumstances. Once the potting medium has been soaked well and the solidity of the root plug formed while (too long) in the pot broken it should be possible to keep it moist with diligent attention.

I just pulled a lilac out of a 3 gal pot, and plunged it into a bucket of water to get it good and wet. The roots are a bit bound on it, it seems. It also seems that whatever it was planted in, is like small bark mulch, that just won't hold water. I intend to work the roots free of a good but of the mulch/dirt b4 planting. Possibly your myrtle is in the same stuff. Maybe after digging, and soaking you need to work the roots free from it a bit.

Sue