I got this same thing on a sweet cherry tree and end up chopping it down, of course it is growing out of the side of the trunk, I decided I will let it live and see if I can treat it so the avoid that nasty soot. I noticed I have alot of lady bugs on my roses and they eat those suckers. My crapes last year got black spot. I guess crapes and roses are strongly related?? I am trying a garlic, water and milk mixture to fight the fungus and bugs (I am guessing they hate the taste of garlic since they never touch any of my garlic plants. When I spray the leaves of my roses it seems to deter the bugs not sure just yet just experimenting. japanesse beetles dont' seem to be a problem, one year they showed themselves but didn't last long and didn't do much damage to anything. some people just use a strong spray of the hose to get rid of the aphids they can't climb back up once they are knocked off. I have alot of acrage and birds galore I am sure they eat the bugs and that is why I seldom have a problem with them, yet. RR

Definately do cut out at the base, all trunks in your CM that are blooming pink. Then be certain to pinch off any new growth that the roots of those cut off branches try to keep growing. If you keep the new growth pinched off then only those roots should suffer,and the white blooming branches should begin to experience an advantage, which helps them to prosper more. Unless it is just the lighting cast on the day you took that photo of the pink blooms, the pink blooming trunks might be a Biloxi Crape Myrtle. Those bubblegum pink blooms, in my opinion are a much nicer sight than some of the more pale easily washed out pinks that some CMs produce. Anyway I only tell you this to let your know that if you do like that particular pink color and would like to have a CM growing someplace else with that color, Than simply order or find at some local nursery a Biloxi Crape Myrtle that is already blooming and that you can confirm it really is a Biloxi Crape Myrtle.

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.

Ok just wanted to post a follow up. I lost my first set of cuttings, but wanted to try again. A trip to the local nursery to get supplies and ask questions proved there are no red CM to buy :( so...I got my new cuttings and used my new products... the perlite and dip & grow. I got a ton of semi-hard wood cuttings. Cuttings: 4-8 inch range, striped all but a few leaves at the top, used a 50/50 mixture in 3 pots of my old sand and peat mix with the perlite, poked a hole with a dibber, dipped cut tip in rotting hormone, put my cuttings in the holes, moistened soil (not too wet) damp, kept in location that sees light, but not direct sunlight. (only bad thing was due to time issues I had to leave the cuttings in water longer then I planned before I prepared them and got them set up in pots) This time I left off the bags and instead misted in the morning before leaving for work and when I got home from work in the evening. The leaves browned on me still and I was about to give up and a few days ago 2 gave me some green leaves. So I have 2 out of about 30. I guess that is good considering I have no greenhouse and can't mist them more then 2x a day. The question now is leave them alone and kep doing the same thing and let them get stronger or try to take them out of the rooting pot and into a new pot of their own? I'm leaning towards leaving them till I know if any others are going to try and throw up some green. I worry about the delicate roots and trying to separate them out w/o damage. When, or do they even need to be transferred to a new pot with a different soil?