Crape Myrtle: cut the flower, plant grows faster?
behaviorkelton
14 years ago
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behaviorkelton
14 years agoRelated Discussions
Damaged (baby) Crape Myrtles - Cut down? Leave alone? Replace?
Comments (0)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:...See MoreCrape/Crepe Myrtle : Deepest red flower?
Comments (78)Anybody know about Burgundy Cotton? How well they bloom? Fall color? I'm trying to figure out a good color combination for my backyard. I'm thinking of a row of light pink with a row of dark purple in front of that. So I'm thinking of the Burgundy Cotton in the back with Zuni or Catawba in the front. I know that Burgundy Cotton is said to have white flowers, but I've seen it in person and it's more of a very light pink, which I think would look nice with the purple. I did a combo of red and pink in the front (dynamite and Sioux) so I'm trying to do a different color combo in the back. Fall color is important to me. Thanks in advance for your advice....See MoreRe-growing a cut Crape Myrtle
Comments (1)If you can keep them watered, I'd go ahead and plant them where you want them now. Be forewarned that this is not the best time to be barerooting and transplanting any shrub or tree, but crape myrtles are pretty tough. They're very easy to root from cuttings. I'd probably cut at least one(if not all) of the 4 ft whips you've got into 8-inch sections, dip the basal end in rooting hormone and stick them in a pot of soilless potting mix, then keep them well-watered and sink the pot in the ground before the ground freezes this fall, and mulch well. If, however, none survive, just take some dormant cuttings from your parents' plant next march, keep 'em in a ziploc bag,wrapped in damp paper toweling, in the fridge, until next spring, then try your hand at rooting them then....See MoreDo you cut the stems where seed pods formed on your Crape Myrtle?
Comments (4)Like Dave said, it is manageable to remove them while the plant is small but becomes impractical when the plant gains some size....See Morebrandon7 TN_zone7
14 years agoDave Townsend
14 years agobehaviorkelton
14 years agomsbatt
14 years agobrandon7 TN_zone7
14 years agoconniemcghee
14 years agobehaviorkelton
14 years agoDave Townsend
14 years agoconniemcghee
14 years agoDave Townsend
14 years agoconniemcghee
14 years ago
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brandon7 TN_zone7