All woody plants that I know will perform well in containers if you're able to provide the cultural conditions that make them happy. In the end, your ability to meet their requirements/needs is key. I can tell you that for long term plantings, the most important part of the equation is the soil you choose. It is the foundation on which vitality rests, from the time you plant until the next complete repot; then the cycle begins anew. Al

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.

After all the responses, I am leaning toward transplanting (for more sun) in the fall. I understand transplanting now is a possibility but am concerned about the stress the plant may experience during the summer. brandon7: I used the rootball guide you kindly provided and calculated the diameter and depth of the rootball I will need to dig when transplanting. I'd appreciate it if you would look over my figures to see if my interpretation is correct. (Both crape myrtles have three trunks coming out of the ground close together. I calculated the diameter with C = d x pi) 1. 'Tonto': The diameter of the three trunks are .68", .6" and .52", respectively. These add to a 'total trunk diameter' (that's what I'll call it for these purposes) of 1.8". Based on the guide, I'll need to dig a rootball whose diameter is 25" and depth is about 12". 2. 'Catawba': Trunk diameters are .83", .83" and .64", respectively, resulting in a 'total trunk diameter' of 2.3". According to the guide, I should dig a rootball with a 32" diameter and a depth of approximately 14". Are these figures in the ballpark? Thanks

Maryl, The Crape Myrtle scale was confirmed here in southern OK in 2012 (and was first confirmed in Dallas at least 8 years before that) so it isn't new to those of us down here, and it hasn't become widespread as far as I can tell. The recommendation to scrub each branch with a brush and soapy water is not a joke---it is a common technique that has been shown to work over a period of several years in several different states now, so it works for people who have the time, patience and ability to do it. I don't think I'd do it with anything except the smallest, youngest crape myrtles. I cannot imagine anything worse than spending time outdoors in the summer heat scrubbing my crape myrtles. (My family probably would decided I was certifiably insane if they saw me doing this!) While scrubbing the trees is an unorthodox and time-consuming method, it is better for the bees and other pollinators than the previous recommendation to treat the crape myrtles with systemic pesticides containing neonicotinoids (which did seem effective, though it can make the pollen and nectar deadly to pollinators). Because recent research indicates the pesticides containing neonicotinoids may be a part of the bee colony collapse disorder that has become such a problem in the USA, many universities and agriculture extension services have stopped recommending the use of soil drenching type pesticides containing neonicotinoids as a solution for crape myrtle scale, but since those pesticides still are sold and used, they are an option. Of course, folks with very tall or very dense crape myrtles may not be able to do the soap scrub of the plants, and I certainly wouldn't want to have to scrub scale off a sizable number of crape myrtles. I've never had it on my crape myrtles, so if it were to appear, maybe I'd do the soap scrub, but I've only got three crape myrtles so it wouldn't be a huge task to scrub the three of them (though I also think it wouldn't be fun). You're aware that if you cut back the crape myrtles to the ground, there's still the chance that scale spreads from someone else's crape myrtles to yours the following season after yours rebound and regrow? One of the problems with the crape myrtle scale is how easily it can spread in areas with lots of crape myrtles. I don't think there's any other crape myrtles near our place within at least 3/4s of a mile in any direction (we are rural) so maybe that is why my plants haven't had the scale yet. It would irritate me to sacrifice all the topgrowth of the crape myrtles and then have scale move back on to them anyhow as soon as they regrew. And, if you cut down only the shorter ones, does that mean you would be leaving some taller ones still standing that might harbor the scale over the winter? It is your choice, but it seems rather drastic to me. You need to do whatever you feel is best, but if you have crape myrtles on adjacent property fairly close to you or just a few houses down the road or whatever, then scale (if those plants have it) is likely to spread to your plants anyway and then you will have taken the drastic step of cutting them back to the ground without any long term benefit. If you happen to have the twice-stabbed lady beetles, they feed on the scale and can clean up plants that are covered with it. I don't see very many twice-stabbed lady beetles around our place, but since we don't have scale on our trees, that's probably why. Lady bugs tend to follow the food, so you might have them show up there to feed on the crape myrtle scale. You might want to keep an eye out for the twice-stabbed lady beetles, which (unfortunately) are not yet available commercially. They are natives and are pretty common in areas where a lot of scale is found. They are black with two orange spots (hence the 'twice-stabbed' name) and I think they are Chilocorus stigma. For me, it would be hard to choose between whether to follow Texas horticulturalist/gardening guru Neil Sperry's recommendation to use a neonicotinoid as a soil drench or to take the drastic action of cutting the crape myrtles down to the ground. While I wouldn't want to harm the bees, and I've never used neonicotinoids precisely for that reason, I also wouldn't especially want to cut back the crape myrtles to the ground. I hate it when they freeze back to the ground in bitterly cold winters, and I wouldn't want to cut back my own. Because of Neil Sperry's involvement with the Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney, TX, where they have planted over 20,000 crape myrtles within the city limits (a number that does not include those planted on private property by landowners/residents), he does still recommend neonicotinoids as a soil drench. There's clearly no way they could hand-wash all 20,000 crape myrtles if the scale insects became a major problem there. Here is a page from the website of the Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney website, and near the bottom of the page, Neil lists specific pesticides that be used to combat the scale insects on Crape Myrtles. Personally (and I admit this is easy to say since I don't have to make this decision myself), I'd try to wait it out and see if the scale returns next year so I could avoid the use of a pesticide. The good news about crape myrtle scale is that it comes and goes and generally doesn't do long-term harm to the plants, but the sooty mold that follows it can be very unsightly. Down here it has been worst in hot drought years when the crape myrtles already are stressed, and not so bad in milder years. Crape Myrtle Trails' Pest Control Page With Scale Info I'm not suggesting that doing nothing is the best solution for you, just mentioning it as one option, and probably an option that appeals most to folks who try to stay organic in their gardens and landscapes. In order to present an organic option, I want to link a page from the Dirt Doctor's website. I think it is an older page because he refers to crape myrtle scale as Florida wax scale (in the early days of the crape myrtle scale infestation in Texas before it moved north to OK, it was not yet recognized as a species of scale unique to crape myrtles), but please note his recommendation is to spray the plants with a combination of a plant wash and orange oil, so that's a different option available to you that you might consider trying before you cut down the crape myrtles. The Dirt Doctor: Crape Myrtle Pest...... Good luck and I hope you'll let us know what works best for you in tackling the crape myrtle scale problem. Dawn