When do crepe myrtles bloom?
slyefox1
11 years ago
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11 years agobrandon7 TN_zone7
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Trimming of crepe myrtles to bloom again
Comments (12)I saw your question on the shrubs forum, but didn't know what you were asking, so came over here. I just couldn't let a question from a fellow Mississippian go by! I live in Meridian. Anyway, Crape Myrtles are hard to classify! Trees...shrubs...they're kind of both, though I think taxonomically, they are shrubs. The info you got about cutting off spent blooms is correct. You may have noticed the green, round, ball-like things on the end of the branches. They can fool you. You think they're new flowers forming, but they are actually seeds. If you cut them off, the tree (shrub) will produce more flowers. But even if you don't religiously cut them off, most crapes will continue to bloom all summer, though not as heavily. That's why they call them the Tree of a Hundred Days. (I guess it is a tree! :) If I may, can I share with you my own prejudice? Please do not pollard your crape myrtles in late winter or early spring, as is so commonly done here. (in other words chop off their limbs in mid-branch) Many folks in our part of the country will tell you they will bloom better if you do. NOT true. And, to me, the winter form of a well-grown crape myrtle is just as beautiful as it is in bloom, maybe more so. As they grow and get older, the trunks and branches look like sculpture. Yes, cut off excess branches (at their point of origin on the trunk or limbs) to showcase the form of the tree. Yes, nip off spent blooms. But don't leave big stumpy limbs that produce big knotty scar tissue, and then sprout a hundred small branches that grow in every direction like witch's brooms. I will probably get all kinds of disagreements on this, and I say ahead of time, everyone has a right to their own opinion, including you, but this is such a common practice that I believe most people do it because it's standard procedure, and they've never questioned it. Thanks for listening!...See More2-yr-Old Acoma Crepe Myrtle won't Bloom
Comments (6)The Easter freeze plus any thin new growth from the previous growing season has spelled out a problem for lots of our local CMS. Earlier in the spring many of them that had about one inch thick trunks even had to be pruned all the way down to almost ground level. In those situations, the CMs reprouted and have regrown to a point where they are now able to be pruned back again, leaving the strongest growing main leader trunks to continue growing and hardening off. Those newly grown trunks are now only about a quarter of an inch thick, and we are very concerned for their need to at least double in thickness and hardened off again so they will have a chance for survival this coming winter. For that reason we do not plan on dead heading the spent flowers to force new growth and more freqent than normal reblooming. If your Acoma CM is not struggling as much as what I just described has happened to many of our locally Grown CMs, then it must be a very good CM Cultivar. It is good that you are going to fertilize it. While you are doing that make certain that the root flare of your Acoma is just at ground level, and that any mulch, which may be covering the rootball, is pulled back at least 4 inches away from the rootflare. If you can not find the root flare when you pull back a little bit of the soil around the trunks of you CM, that could be indicating, you CM may now be situated too deeply into the soil. If that is the case continue removing the soil until you do find the root flare (that topmost place where the roots begin to grow out of the trunk) and slightly taper the soil. Then cover the entire planting bed with mulch, but like mentioned above, Keep the mulch at least 4 inches away from the trunk. When you reported that your Acoma has grown some, did you mean that you have seen new growth this spring and early summer? Is it fully leafed out? Have you avoided doing the "crape myrtle murder" pruning on it, except where the trunks and branches may have frozen already from winter and Easter freeze kill? If your Acoma has been "CM murder" pruned it could take even longer for your CM to recover, just like it slowes the CM down from forming the bloom buds, if you have not pruned back, to the first set of three leaves, the freeze killed dead ends of the branches. At any rate do not give up on your Acoma just yet. The trunk, foliage, and root developing that it has been and is currently doing should make it a much more resiliant shrub or small tree, once it finally does begin to put forth large amounts of its energy for blooming....See MoreWhy aren't my crepe myrtles blooming?
Comments (3)Are they getting more shade from trees nearby growing taller? Do you, or your neighbor, fertilize your lawns(s)? Most lawn fertilizer is high in Nitrogen, and will push leaves instead of flowers. Aside from those two probable causes, I can't think of another right now. You can TRY to fertilize with a fertilizer for flowering plants, with a low N (first) number, but if they are getting too much shade, there's not a whole lot that will do to help. While CMs do OK with little or no water, especially older ones, they do better with water, so maybe getting supplemental water to them might help. Of course, if you are under water restrictions, that's no use.......See Morecrepe myrtles not blooming
Comments (9)my CMs are the same way, the white ones have bloomed fine, the pink ones little to none at all. i do nothing to them but prune them lightly, no fertilizer, no water other than rain. most around here are the same way. BTW, i have about 20 left in my yard. i pulled up 10 or so and burnt them in the burn pile. my mom recently went to buy a couple to fill in a spot in her yard, and a 5 ft CM was 150.00! if i had known they go for so high a price, i would have dug them up and sold them! a couple of mine were 10ft+ in height. the previous owner of our house did nothing to the CM. he did not even prune them. the ones along the drive are space 20 ft apart, and when we moved in the branches were actually intertwined in the middle! that took a lot of work to get them back into shape. a couple are really ugly right now, but i am letting new trunks grow in straight instead of all over like they were....See Moreslyefox1
11 years agoaquilachrysaetos
11 years agoslyefox1
11 years agogardenapprentice
11 years ago
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brandon7 TN_zone7