Is it leaning toward the sun?

All of mine do that.

Remove the stakes- they aren't doing anything nor are they necessary. If it is that recently planted it would be easy enough to dig down and straighten it out if it bothers you that badly, but nature is rarely straight or even. You could probably even do it after watering by stepping on the high side to right it a bit, just make sure the base isn't buried after.

Let it establish itself before you go nuts- I'd wait until at least next spring to do any pruning for shape, but then you can certainly take off anything that offends you by growing crooked. It will soon be replaced by five new crooked branches :)

And pull that grass/weed.

Agree - it's a young plant and the weight of the new growth + flower clusters is making it top heavy. I think I'm seeing a couple of suckers at ground level. Decide how many trunks you want and remove extra suckers. Your crape will continue to sucker from the roots throughout it's lifetime and pulling off the extras is a maintenance chore.

This was newly planted about a month ago

==>>> its leaning the way it was.. at whatever nursery it came from ...

where are you ... boy are those houses close together ... it might matter if we suggest you redig it ...

what i dont like.. is the depressions around it in the second pic.. can you pull back the mulch .. pine.. so youre probably down the east coast somewhere ... and lets see if the soil was improperly replaced on planting ....

i cant really make out the staking on these pix ...

not unlike your children .. your plant does not have to look like everyone elses ... so dont fixate on that .. lets just make sure its properly planted ...

see link for general primer on planting .... peruse it enough so that we can get on the same page when discussing ...

ken

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

A few points...

Your crApe myrtle looks reasonably normal to me. It may not be "perfect", but I think it will be just fine when it grows a little.

Panty hose make pretty good ties if you want to train a few trunks. They are stretchy to allow some natural movement, wide enough that they don't damage the trunks, readily available, and easy to use.

As Cecily recommended, decide how many trunks you want, and remove the others and any future root suckers. I personally think 4 to 7 trunks usually look best, and many people seem to prefer odd numbers like 3, 5, or 7.

Ripping suckers off, when possible, is far better than cutting them off. Ripping will usually eliminates some of the adventitious buds associated with the suckers and discourages, to some degree, regrowth. You'll need to catch the suckers when they are fairly small to be able to rip them away.

Older crape myrtles that have been well maintained (suckers removed regularly for the first few years), usually sucker very little or not at all. There is some variation with different cultivars and maybe with different conditions, but sucker removal is often not an issue (or at least not a significant issue) after a few years of diligent work. Pruning will often encourage suckering.

My guess is that it wasn't placed straight at planting time.

I agree that stakes are not the answer. Perhaps it could be dug up very carefully so as not to upset it too much and shuffled slightly back towards the other way. I would probably do this. I don't mean forcing it either, but a gentle re-positioning. It would take some care.

lol.. very common to see this type of problems.. when the builder hires his brother in law to plant the plants.. just before they all leave town .. lol..

in regard to brandon.. and his panty hose ... the key is.. they rot off in a year or two.. if you forget to remove them ... so they never end up strangling the plant ... you can also use any 100% cotton string or twine or whatever ... i used to like old fashioned clothes line ... because you could untie and retie it a few times a year .. too many peeps think its a tie it once type of thing.. and then forget about it.. cotton also roots off.. faster than the plants can get choked ..

staking should be done.. to secure a newly planted root mass into the ground.. long enough for the plant to get some roots out to support itself .. and then you should be done with staking ... it really shouldnt be done long term.. to try to get a plant to grow some new way ... that would be accomplished thru pruning... [and thats assuming your not some topiary guru who really knows what his vision is.. and how to get there]

ken

Ken, they aren't MY pantyhose! I buy them for the plants!

Needs pruning this winter.