Crape or Crepe Myrtle in Zone 5 Indiana
cbergman
13 years ago
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years agomusicalperson
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Keeping crape myrtle as a container plant zone 5
Comments (5)I have grown a crape myrtle (the dwarf "Victor") for almost 10 years and hauled it in and out each year. Unfortunately due to the PM that would ravage that type every year (seemingly resistant to either the most basic baking soda solutions or actual PM drenches or sprays), it eventually had had enough (and I had had enough of it! lol) so I finally tossed it this past winter. I kept it in my darkish, cool (avg temp ~60° F - 65° F) bedroom each winter, it would drop its leaves and stay dormant, and then around February, it would start putting out new growth with the increasing daylength. The tricky part would be to try to ease it out in spring/summer and let the inside foliage adapt to the outside, but that is something that must be done with any plant that will go out in summer. Just like many many people overwinter plumerias, bananas, palms, tropical hibiscus, etc., there is nothing stopping you from doing the same with a crape myrtle. In the case of the crape, as a warm temperate shrub, if you have a cold, non-freezing spot (maybe an attached garage, shed, crawl space, or root cellar that stays cold but remains around or above freezing and up to the 40s or low 50s), then you could keep a potted crape in there during winter and bring it out in spring to resprout. Note that crapes bloom on new growth so there is nothing stopping you from doing major top pruning on it in late winter/early spring to keep the height in check. In many colder areas in the NE where they are inground or in more southerly areas with a freak frost or freeze, they may die back to the roots and resprout as a bush, but they bloom just fine just the same. In general, I will overwinter and grow tropicals/subtropicals indoors "as houseplants" (like my tropical hibiscus, DC banana, and coffee arabica) that will go out in summer, but for my marginal-when-potted temperates like the crape, and some others like my baby american beautyberry (or any baby shrub), my gloriosa lily, and some of my Salvias, I have induced dormancy in them and overwintered them in a cool dark spot, keeping them barely moist....See MorePlanting row of crape (crepe) myrtle trees?
Comments (11)If you can get, and keep, the crepe myrtle to a single trunk, it won't be as wide as a multi-trunked tree. The flowering branches do extend pretty far out, and can hang down/droop gracefully as the blooms open, possibly as wide as tall, but I haven't measured any big ones that were single trunk. That's why I suggested planting further from the sidewalk, so it doesn't block the walk. You could trim any branches that overhung the walkway back to the trunk, although the CM as a whole might look lop-sided. I am not sure you WANT to prune a 20 foot tree to keep it lower, unless you have access to a cherry picker, as it's rather hard to be safe that high up and reaching to prune? (if you are an aerialist, line-man, or professional arborist, then never mind) And CM's don't look good pruned shorter, IMO. Look up "crepe murder" on this forum or Google for it, and find photos of each, and you can see the differences in "murdered" treees and trees left to grow naturally. Trimming for shape is one thing, trimming for height is much harder to do and keep the tree looking natural. Try to find a CM cultivar that won't get taller than you want the ultimate height to be, and be aware that it will take some years for it to grow to that height. While I love lamb's ears, unless you get a non-flowering variety, be aware that it might not be the best for next to a public walkway. The bumble bees LOVE the flowers, and while you do have to work pretty hard to get a bumble bee to sting, it might upset the neighbors and passers-by to hear and see them buzzing happily. Not many people are aware of the differences between bb's and honey bees, and can react badly to any buzzing, bee-like insect....See MoreCrape/crepe myrtle off-shoots can I dig up and replant?
Comments (4)I'll bet you added that plastic border fairly recently. Either that or you cut a root while weeding. The baby formed from a severed root of the larger crape. the root system of the baby tree probably mainly radiates out away from the parent tree, so you can keep that in mind when you go to dig it up. I'd try to get at least a foot of root length (based on my guesstimate of size from the picture and assuming root structure similar to what I'd expect in this situation). Crape myrtle root divisions are pretty easy to transplant. Just take your time and get a reasonable amount of root as you remove your baby crape. You may also want to be careful not to cut a lot more of the parent tree's roots in the process of digging up the baby. I'd give this job a rating of easy. P.S. Be careful to get down deep enough to get a good piece of root. Depending on various factors, the bulk of the root system on some of these can be deeper than what you might expect from a seedling of similar size....See MoreNon blooming Crape (crepe) Myrtle
Comments (1)The fact that you say they stayed in the pots for some years is your biggest clue here. It's very likely they were extremely root bound when you put them in the ground unless you did some pretty extensive loosening of the roots. If that's the case, be patient. Feed them every spring and they will eventually break out into the soil and begin to bloom. We planted some Natchez crape myrtles at our church eight years ago. A bulldozer just scooped out a hole, we filled it with compost and planted the trees in them. Without realizing it, we put them into a "clay pot". This was the 8th summer and this year they bloomed like mad and grew a foot after growing almost none all the years before and never blooming. Their roots finally penetrated the surrounding soil. I heard Felder Rushing say on Friday that you can sometimes shock them into blooming by "beating them with a stick" (I'm not kidding), and driving a shovel into the ground around the root ball here and there to shock the roots a little bit. You've got nothing to lose. As to an imposter: do the leaves look like the blooming one? Does the bark look like the blooming one? If so, they are probably crape myrtles. You may just have got some seed grown plants that are variable because of the different genetics of the seeds. This could also account for the fact that one isn't blooming. If they were started from wild seeds there's no telling what you will get. It always pays to buy named varieties....See MoreToronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
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