Hello... I live in the desert and have two young crape myrtles in my yard. They are bred to grow in the desert. They got to about knee-high before they went dormant last year. While dormant, in mid-January, my new puppy dog got a hold of them and mauled them pretty well. One, the pink velour, was hurt so bad and I clipped about 4 inches off the vertical branch-trunks and removed all lateral branches. The other, the red rocket, was chewed pretty bad and had to be cut down to 3-7 inches depending the extent of the damage on each branch-trunk. I know from basic studies that if a branch is cut at the end, because branches extend from their ends, it will cease to continue growing. I am concerned that these crape myrtles will not gain very much more height due to the ends of their branches being cut and will, instead, grow out and have a complicated branch system. I have three options, leave them be and let nature take its course, while hoping the trees end up growing correctly; replace them, since they're still under warranty; or cut them down to the root ball and let new suckers form to create new trunks while they're still young. (The plants are under one year old.) Looking at the plants, and hoping you know a lot about crape myrtles, which option would you choose if you were looking for height AND fullness? Thanks. Image link:

Ok just wanted to post a follow up. 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?

it will take.. as long as it takes.. in the conditions you provided ... did you research what type of wood roots [new wood.. year old wood.. or old wood??] ... and what time of year to take cuttings ... or are you completely winging it???? i am surprised you couldnt get a general answer thru google ... though i do understand that you are asking for personal experience ... lightly tugging will NOT rip off new roots ... besides.. you dont need to pull it completely out... a cutting with no roots will slip right out of the media... stick it right back in ... if there is resistance... and the media starts to come with it.. you PRESUME roots are forming ... your media should not be so compacted.. that you rip off roots ... next time.. you might want to sterilize you media in the microwave ... your container with bleach .... and clean your plants BEFORE enclosing them ... prevention is much easier.. than fixing it all later .... trust me.. been there.. done that... ken

You should ALWAYS ask permission! What if you and a thousand other people decide to take cuttings of a particular plant at the restaurant, at the grocery, at the park, dentist's parking lot, Disney Worlld, on municipal property along the road? :-) If it's not yours, you should ask first. Check with your City or County municipal departments. Most have a landscaping division with a director or superintendent in charge. Ask for the manager at the grocery, or the owner of the business. Believe me, if the thought of snitching one or two cuttings has crossed your mind, it has occurred to plenty of others ahead of and behind you. Accumulatively, that constitutes property damage. Right? You simply have to ask; it's the right thing to do. You will either get permission right away or you might get asked to wait until they can take the cuttings for you or they will ask that you don't. Whatever happens, they will appreciate that you asked. I've asked and received permission to take cuttings and seeds from public parks, exotic nurseries, cemeteries, parking lots of businesses, and from the gardens of complete strangers who answered my knock on their doors.