CrapeMyrtle not blooming

12 years ago

Please, This Lagerstroemia indica was purchased 4/05 and had an all right bloom that first year. It also had good new growth at ground level the following spring and a really good bloom that next summer. HOWEVER, despite vigorous and even enormous growth every year since then (over 12' in height)... barely one stinking bloom! :( I have tried to be patient, but after 5 years !?! I feel like a fool ... did I just get a lemon? or is this foliage from a grafted root stock? Please ... any suggestions? Thank you

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Comments (9)

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
12 years ago
Does your crapemyrtle die back to the ground every winter? Does the new growth get zapped by late freezes? Are you pruning it every spring?

That's what it sounds like.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
i cant grow CM's in my z5 .... where are you ???

hyper growth can be a function of hyper-fertilizing.. and if you are doing such with the wrong formula ... then you could be increasing green growth at the cost of bloom ...

most flowers set their buds in late summer.. for next spring.. ANYTHING ... including a z5 winter.. can kill those buds resulting in no flower.. as well as the prolonged frost/freezes associated with z5 ...

you do understand that you are zone pushing to the max????

ken
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In three and a half years those crapes should be the size of small trees. Large growing varieties should easily put on 3-5' per year in your climate. They do for me here in TN, and you're one zone warmer than I am. The grass looks brown and poor. Unless there has been drought, that grass should be green and lush, considering it is late fall, going by your images. I'm wondering if the topsoil was removed and major grading occurred during the build, and what you are left with is poor, pauperized and drought prone subsoil, at least in front and away from the existing trees. The reason I say the above is that I am intimately familiar with a situation here in which the crapes had performed for years as yours have. The property had very extensive grading work done prior to the house build, and a lot of the stuff planted did not do well. The owner of the property is a knowledgeable gardener, so the plantings received good care. Nothing died, but neither did it thrive. A couple years ago I moved the crapes, 3 'Natchez' and last year 2 'Hardy Lavender'. They had been planted for quite a few years but I was able to hand dig and move them easily myself. I picked a spot that was not originally graded and planted them. Today the 'Natchez' are multi-trunked trees with beautiful exfoliating bark and they flower profusely. 'Hardy Lavender' has put on more growth in the 1 year since being moved than all the time since it was originally planted. I'll await further comment before this turns into a short novel LOL.
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docmoo
Original Author
12 years ago
thanks RHIZO: yes I prune it to the ground every spring, even if I didn't do that, God prunes it anyway ... all new growth on all my CM's come from the ground,all new every spring. This is the only CM that isn't blooming ... so that's my ?, why this one?

and thanks KEN: southern missouri,north of springfield which is zone 6; I have areas of my yard which I can grow Zone 6, but otherwise I am completely 5. As I mentioned to rhizo, this is not my only CM and I have seen tree-like unpruned CM in neighboring Buffalo, MO !?! What species is that? am soooo jealous. So, what's up with this one?
brandon7 TN_zone7
12 years ago
It's putting all of its energy into growth instead of blooms. It could be fertilization/improper-fertilization, just the way that cultivar is reacting to being coppiced each year, or a combination of both.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
12 years ago
Ken, Crapemyrtles bloom on brand new growth, the very tips of the branches. Thus, they CAN be pruned in the early spring and still bloom, but we all know that heavy pruning stimulates a great deal of new growth....a plant can't readily devote all of that energy to excess top growth PLUS flower.

But, docmoo, we really can't speculate any more than we already have why this particular plant is not performing for you while your others are. Call it a mystery.
docmoo
Original Author
12 years ago
thanks rhizo
thanks brandon
hate mysteries, and will try extra phosphorus next spring!
m :)
User
12 years ago
Dcmoo,
Do it now! Put bloodmeal in the ground now in the fall all around the shrub.
Do it every fall and let it gradually disentagrate between now and next July.
My crape myrtle grew alot the second year, no fricking blooms the whole summer.
I'm in South Carolina, and they were blooming in the cracks in the street!
No, not mine.
That fall I bought blood meal from Home Depot and put it in the soil and then mulched real good on top of it.
THe next summer, low and behold blooms!
I do it every year now, I have really poor soil, it blooms every year.
That reminds me, I have to go get some.....
docmoo
Original Author
12 years ago
thanks butterfly !
brandon7 TN_zone7
12 years ago
Facts:

Blood meal is a nitrogen source.
Nitrogen encourages green growth.
Excessive green growth frequently results in less blooming.

Blood meal often attracts some pests like digging dogs.

CrapeMyrtle not blooming

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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

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CrapeMyrtle not blooming

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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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