Myrtle won't bloom

14 years ago

I have a couple of crape myrtles in my yard that won't bloom (don't ask me the variety). They are ones that are more like a bush and not tree and have small leaves. I know that myrtles are heat tolerant and the spot where mine are is a place where water accumulates when it rains, so, I don't know if that is the reason. They never get any buds, they just produce more leaves.

Any ideas

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Iris GW

14 years ago

I have neighbors that bought two beautiful crapes - tall and beautifully pruned. The first year, they had them whacked off. Last year and this year - no blooms. What a shame.

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Comments (12)

georgia-rose
14 years ago
According to the experts (I'm certainly not one of them!), the main reasons crape myrtles fail to bloom, are:

1) Insufficient sunlight. They require at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight daily to bloom well.

2) Low soil fertility. If water stands around your trees(shrubs) when it rains, it may be leaching the nutrients from the soil, PLUS, it is cutting off the necessary oxygen supply to the roots.

3) Lack of pruning or severe pruning. They bloom on new wood each year and benefit from early spring pruning, that promotes new growth. Severe pruning will cause all of the plant's available energy to be focused on growing new branches and foliage and not into flower production.

They are fairly drought tolerant, but need adequate moisture during growth and flowering periods. 3-4 inches of mulch can help retain soil moisture. Keep mulch 3-4 inches away from trunk(s) to permit air circulation.

To correct low soil fertility, add 10-10-10 fertilizer in the early spring, beginning of growth cycle, at the rate of one pound per inch of trunk diameter.(If multi-stem, combine diameters of all). Spread around base of tree/shrub and water in well.

Hope this helps to encourage your trees/shrubs to bloom. I had the same problem many years ago and had to move 3 fairly large ones, to an area where they received more direct sunlight.
gusolie
14 years ago
#3 is misleading, it is a BAD LANDSCAPER'S HABIT that has fooled people into believing that hatracking (annual severe pruning) of crapemyrtles is the "thing to do". NOT!!!!!!

There are examples of non-pruned crapemyrtles all over the South (many at botanical gardens and university campuses) that have been allowed to grow to their fullest beauty with NO PRUNING/HATRACKING and their flower numbers are greater than those decapitated every spring (Auburn University did a study on the number of flower heads per tree: no pruning vs. hatracked/butchered crapes).

If anything on a crapemyrtle, you tip prune off the spent flowers after their first summer flowering. That quickly leads 2-3 side shoots to grow from that tip prune and you get more flowering by early September.
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Natches Crepe myrtles usually grow fast when they are young and are one of the potentially tallest growing cultivars of CMs. Yours likely get the right amount of water they like during their spring growth flush, and the nitrogen issue will definately compound that fast growth issue. The tree that is not blooming could be getting less direct sun rays. Is there a tall tree or some other structure that is out of the shot, but which is tall enough to cast signifcant hours of shade on that CM. If so that could be another reason you CM is not blooming yet, even though the Natches on the other end of the house has begun to bloom. Personally if I wanted a corner accent CMs I would not have chosen the Natches cultivar. Especially considering that those multi trunks have the potential to get overly thick and the canopy they each produce can end up being more massive than one would think they might want spreading so close to the corner of house. Guess to avoid such issues, either late winter or very early next spring, you could do corrective pruning that transforms your Cms to single trunk trees. but whether or not you choose to do that you will find the you also will need to yearly raise each tree's canopy, until the yearly pruning time arrives when your trees are tall enough that their canopies are higher than your roof line and are no longer close enough to hang down on and brush against your house shingles.
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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.
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No not in the dead of the winter. The only time I covered it with a tarp was when the hydrangeas were waking up from dormancy and its buds were starting to come out(around beginning march to beginning april) and when the cold weather suddenly came(below freezing temps). Thats when they are the most vulnerable to cold damage. Not sure about your zone but in my area late winter/early spring colds often suddenly come. And thats what kills off the buds and preventing them from flowering. And you don't even have to protect it if temperatures don't go below freezing. I'm saying protect IF sudden cold temperatures come. And I only suggested you to take off the tarp in the morning because you said many people pass by where the hydrangeas are. So to make it clear: protect the hydrangeas with either tarp of chicken wire stuffed with leaves ONLY when below freezing temperatures suddenly come when the hydrangeas have started to bud and keep the tarp on overnight and take it off in the morning so people won't see it.
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Donna
14 years ago
Several years ago, I had a crepe myrtle come up in my yard from seed which was probably imported with mulch. I lifted it and potted it up to see what it would do. It has very small leaves and has grown healthily in every way, except it has never bloomed, despite fertilizer, sun, etc. This leads me to believe that perhaps the "parents" of today's hybrids do not bloom as easily or often as the hybrids we have all become accustomed to. You say you don't know what kind yours are. Did you plant them or were they just there when you moved in? Perhaps my experience would be a clue.
gusolie
14 years ago
Is your soil clay or sand? It could be that if your crapes sit in a little water after a rainstorm that collectively with time the rootball and crown of the tree are progressively getting deeper and deeper with all the silt or organic matter being deposited.

Can you see if the trunk crown or the flare (where the trunk flares out wider to transition to the roots) is semi-buried under lef mold, much or just eroded clay?
bugbite
14 years ago
donnabaskets,
I had a crepe come up from a seed once. Nothing for 3 years. The second year, worms got it. The third year my wife cut it down. The fourth year it grow about 10 feet and finally peaked over the roof to get some sun and it bloomed. This winter I moved it to a featured spot in my garden with plenty of sun. It is doing great. I also learned to love these volunteers. Last year I had about 20. Didn't want more this season, but I found 7 more so far. They vary greatly. I have one that is an amazing grower. And one that I call a crepe vine, because it is small and draping.
Problem is they can take 3 years before their first small bloom happens. It is still exciting when the first flowers appear.
Bob
Donna
14 years ago
Very cool story! Maybe I need to let it out of the pot! I certainly have learned to love those volunteers. I cannot tell you how many trees I have planted lovingly and lost over the years since we moved here. I finally gave up and started watching for volunteers to come up and nurturing them. I have the only redbuds in my (new) neighborhood, all of which came up from seed imported with mulch. They bloomed this year, just five years after germination. I have a tulip poplar that is only four years old that is at least 25 feet tall now! I swore off buying trees anymore.
jerryngeorgia31557
14 years ago
#1 and 3 are a little misleading. I have some 30 on my properity, but I have one that was just a twig(about 6 inches) 2 years ago and I planted it in a 6 inch pot and put it near my water faucet and forgot about it really and have never pruned it. Well this year the trunk is 4 inches in diameter and is about 15 ft. tall. It is in full shade and it is in full bloom right now. Simply beautiful and to be honest, it has more blooms on it that all the rest of mine that get full sun. Happy Gardening to all and GOD bless the USA while we have one!
amason4
9 years ago
About 7 years ago we planted a Crepe Myrtle in a sunny spot in our yard. A well meaning friend decided it needed to be pruned and ever since then it doesn't bloom. It appears very healthy and has nice leaves on it but just no blooming. I'm not sure if there is any hope after so many years or if it would help to prune again. I appreciate any ideas.
amason4
9 years ago
About 7 years ago we planted a Crepe Myrtle in a sunny spot in our yard. A well meaning friend decided it needed to be pruned and ever since then it doesn't bloom. It appears very healthy and has nice leaves on it but just no blooming. I'm not sure if there is any hope after so many years or if it would help to prune again. I appreciate any ideas.
dottie_in_charlotte
9 years ago
Did the pruning occur at planting or just last year? Has it ever bloomed? Often we buy cm's in bloom to be certain of the blossom color and pruning off the excess blooms before planting helps the young tree begin to establish a broader root system.
If it hasn't bloomed for all of the 7 years since planting I might suspect a soil issue where a fall and early spring feeding could be helpful.
Just remember that a 7 year in the ground tree has feeder roots that extend at least 6 feet from the multi-trunk.
Simply scratching food a foot from the trunks is not going to
do much except feed opportunistic weed seeds.
The right food, applied at the right times will encourage bud development. At the wrong time, it encourages foliage.
At least it sounds healthy.
Gigi9437x
9 years ago
My myrtle has always bloomed but this year it was covered with green buds that never opened up. Now that it is fall the buds are still on the tree but all dried up. Otherwise the tree is fine. What happened>

Myrtle won't bloom

Iris GW

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