Crape Myrtle Natchez spacing to create a border
I’m trying to create a privacy border similar to the picture below at the back of my backyard using Crape Myrtle Natchez. The length is about 40 feet. The garden center said I can plant 8 trees 5 feet apart but everything online says they should be much further apart. I don’t think it will be an issue at first because I’m buying 15 gallon trees but as they grow will it be an issue? I do want them as close as possible. Thoughts/ suggestions?
Comments (8)
melissachiodi
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Just planted Natchez Crape Myrtle... 9' from the house
Comments (2)I think I would move it to another area, further from the house, where the only pruning needed would be the removal of dead branches, and keeping the bottom tidy. IMO, pruned CMs look AWFUL, and are an ongoing nightmare. There are any number of good CM cultivars that will stay to your size requirements, so get one of them, and plant it near the house instead of the 'Natchez'. However,I would think that it would be OK, if not ideal there if you don't want to move it. You might have to cut off any branches, or trunks, that end up too close to the house or to the roof, but it would give some shade there, and would be dramatic. If you don't HAVE another area, and don't want to let it grow in its present location, then see if someone will come and take it away, "free for the digging" or for a fee, since it was so recently planted and should be easy to dig out. I don't know that you would make your initial cost back, since it IS in the ground now, but ..... In any case, keep up the watering - whenever the root ball is dry down to the depth of about 2", or to the depth of your finger poked into the ground to the second knuckle, NOT by a set schedule. Water it really well when you water, so that the root ball is soaked. If you haven't mulched, do so, as widely as possible, no deeper than 4", and no mulch next to the trunk(s). The mulch can always be scraped back to dig it up and replant another one, if you decide to go that route....See MoreNatchez Crepe Myrtles
Comments (11)Rhizo makes a good point. What it really comes down to is the look you want for your house. I personally like smaller, ornamental trees that frame the house: at corners, or sides, etc. I like BIG shade trees in fronts and backs of houses whose canopies will grow so high that they do not block the view of the house from the street. I wholeheartedly agree with his comment about naked and forlorn neighborhoods. Ultimately, the choice is yours. I have found it to be useless to go to garden centers with a specific variety of crape myrtle in mind. Except for the well known ones like Natchez, they never seem to have what I want. Almost all selections with the names of Indian Tribes are resistant to mildew. Read the tags, and choose one of suitable height, width, and color. Chances are you'll do just fine. I would caution about Byers Wonderful White. It's beautiful and tough, but the blooms are so huge that they can actually cause the limbs to break under their weight. It's nearly as large as Natchez, so I would choose Natchez if those were the only two whites available. Here is another idea for you to consider. You might want to think about a border of trees and/or shrubs and/or flowers, etc. that wraps itself around the edges of your property. Shape your lawn in a U or a semi-circle, for instance, and then leave maybe 15 feet or so of buffer around the edges, extending from the lawn edge to the property line or the street. Then plant that area and leave the lawn as a (small) pristine centerpiece. You remove obstacles from the view of your house. It's easier to mow your grass without trees scattered around it. The grass grows better with more sunlight, and the border gives you privacy and shelter. There is beauty that you can see from the street or from your interior windows. (Why plant all the pretty stuff for the passing cars to enjoy?) Think about it. There are lots of houses with two trees in the front yard. Why not try something a bit different and provide that wonderful neighborhood canopy too? You can just mulch the area for now and add plants as time and money becomes available....See MoreNatchez/Muskogee crepe myrtle accurate size
Comments (13)I just hate seeing crape murder, especially on the larger varieties of CM's. I just can't bring myself to tell my neighbors that they've got it all wrong since they think their landscape guy hung the moon and all. Sadly, they're so ruined from years of this that they'd have to be cut down to stumps and allowed to regrow to look decent again. I rail against the practice whenever possible though. A couple of years ago I was talking to another neighbor that has a beautiful 20-25' Natchez. She thought maybe it needed to be topped since that's what some neighbors were doing. I did manage to talk her out of that, at least for now, thankfully!...See MorePossible to prune a Natchez crepe myrtle to stay medium size?
Comments (13)Thanks all for the insights - sounds like I should avoid Natchez. Which I what I initially was thinking prior to having such a damn hard time finding the 'Acoma' variety here locally in the Bay Area of California. "Find a myrtle that will fit your space" is proving to be easier said than done. I have designed moonlight garden so a white myrtle is part of the plan vs the other gorgeous pink/red varieties. Will continue the search for an 'Acoma'. All online sources seem to be sold out :(...See More
PROYardvaark
4 years agoThe garden center is selling trees so, of course, they want you to space them as closely together as you could be convinced was reasonable.
I look for opportunities to see if the tree spacing can be coordinated with any of the background. Here, there is a fence panel repeating at distinct intervals -- probably 8'. Yet for the height of tree you need (as it will have proportionate width) that still seems like a bit tight of spacing, if you want the trees to display some character as individuals, and not just a monolithic background screen. As a compromise, I would consider a wider spacing, such as every other other fence panel (every 16' +/-) and making it a double row. That way you still get a solid screen, but the front row of trees stand out with enough separation from each other that they read as individuals, not just generic screening. (A single row at 8' on center would look like a giant hedge.) And you have plenty of yard depth to do it. Of course, the backs of the front row will blend together with the fronts of the back row, but since you won't see it from your primary viewpoint, it won't be a point that matters.
With tree screening, the fence itself and the ground space below the trees can become quite dark. The fence will tend to disappear into a black hole. The conditions stand a good chance of being unfriendly to growing shrubs, and much more suitable to growing groundcover ... like a mass of ferns or something. At any rate, you'd probably want all the space below trees to be a bed rather than lawn, since grass isn't going to grow, giving you the opportunity to cut down on mowing.
Natchez can be a lovely tree, but with a background of open sky -- often almost white -- a white flower color strikes me as likely to be disappointingly underwhelming. In your inspiration picture, where there is dark forest behind the right-side trees, the white flowers stand out. But at the left-side trees, the white flowers are lost in the upper portion of the trees. 'Muskogee' -- also a big crape -- strikes me as a much more effective flower color choice. Anything BUT white in a big crape would work.
melissachiodi thanked Yardvaarkmelissachiodi
4 years ago
zmith
4 years ago
girlnamedgalez8a