Never top it, please don't follow that practice that unfortunately has become common. Lagerstromias are technically shrubs, with many branches from the base. Just select 5 or so well formed branches, cut the rest away at the base. This will need to be done periodically. If not, it will continue to send up new branches, thickening and widening the entire plant over time to a massive thicket. feenix's site linked above shows a good diagram of the proper pruning.

I'm a bit confused by ken's statements. I developed a container nursery in the Lowcountry of SC, where we fostered thousands of healthy plants in black plastic pots under the blazing SC sun. I also sold those plants all year 'round, truckloads at a time, to busy successful landscapers who were going to plant them....even in the middle of summer. The landscaping businesses all over the country would shut down if planting containerized plants in the heat of the summer was much of a problem for plants. It's just not really an issue, with proper after care. I've also done big commercial landscaping projects myself in the middle of the summer and I do not expect a plant to suffer one bit for the experience. I've got plants ( roses, crapes, and day lilies) in 3 gallon black plastic pots, OMG) sitting on our driveway (which faces west) and our patio (faces east) right now. They've all been there for over a year, in the harsh Alabama sun, sitting on hot concrete. None of the plants have flagged at all, or fainted due to the heat, or missed a bloom cycle. The exceptions to this would be for field grown plants, which are not dug in the heat of the summer. So, Jenny, I honestly think that your plants will suffer more if you suddenly put them in the shade. Locate them where it will be convenient to water them once (or even twice) a day...thoroughly. That shouldn't take any more than a minute! IF the plants truly appear to be root bound, repot them into a substance similar to what they are growing in. NO garden soil, please, nor compost. Most woody ornamentals today are grown in a medium that is composed mostly of bark fines. Perhaps you can get some from that nursery. But I would only repot if truly necessary. I strongly suspect that your plants will do just fine for a month or two without being transplanted. There's a big difference between 3 gallon nursery containers and a 5 gallon bucket. If a bad potting medium is chosen, the plants could truly suffer for it. Also, most nursery plants are fertilized with slow release products and your might not need anything for quite some time. You can see the colored fert. prills if you look. Sometimes they will be yellowish, sometimes green. If you are worried that the plants are suffering for lack of fertilizer, just mix up a dilute batch of any soluble product (such as for houseplants, etc.) and water it in. I sure hope that I've offered the more reasonable side to you situation. Honestly and truly, I don't think you have a thing to worry about as long as you don't forget about your plants.

Ok just wanted to post a follow up. I got my new cuttings and used my new products... the perlite and dip & grow. I got a ton of semi-hard wood cuttings. Cuttings: 4-8 inch range, striped all but a few leaves at the top, used a 50/50 mixture in 3 pots of my old sand and peat mix with the perlite, poked a hole with a dibber, dipped cut tip in rotting hormone, put my cuttings in the holes, moistened soil (not too wet) damp, kept in location that sees light, but not direct sunlight. (only bad thing was due to time issues I had to leave the cuttings in water longer then I planned before I prepared them and got them set up in pots) This time I left off the bags and instead misted in the morning before leaving for work and when I got home from work in the evening. The leaves browned on me still and I was about to give up and a few days ago 2 gave me some green leaves. So I have 2 out of about 30. I guess that is good considering I have no greenhouse and can't mist them more then 2x a day. The question now is leave them alone and kep doing the same thing and let them get stronger or try to take them out of the rooting pot and into a new pot of their own? I'm leaning towards leaving them till I know if any others are going to try and throw up some green. I worry about the delicate roots and trying to separate them out w/o damage. When, or do they even need to be transferred to a new pot with a different soil?

I'm in Hopkinsville, in southwestern KY, about 1 1/2 hours from Nashville (we're northwest of it). We're 6B. Crepe myrtles are fairly common around here, but at least small to medium-sized ones an get killed back to the ground if we get an extreme cold snap. For example, we get down to the teens for lows occasionally, once in awhile might hit zero, but a couple of years back we had one night with an anticipated low of -9 to -11 degrees. That killed a young peach tree I'd planted the prior spring, and (I think that's what did this) busted the trunk of a beautiful young Bloodgood Japanese maple I had at a place I work (it put back from the roots; I let the suckers grow one year, then this spring picked one & cut the rest). My point is, if I'm 6B and you're aways south of me, you may be '7A' or what have you, but even up here, we have crepe myrtles. I've got a pink velour in the backyard at home - which got killed to the ground & put back out from that same winter. This year, not so bad, wasn't killed to the ground. Richard.