Best Practice for Health and Disease Resistance
By Theresa Schretzmann-Myers –
Windermere Tree Board and International Society of Arboriculture Member
Crepe Myrtles are beautiful flowering trees that add colorful ruffled flowers to your yard every summer. We value them for their textured and peeling bark, fall colors and naturally graceful form. Keep your Crepe Myrtles blooming and thriving from year to year by pruning at the right time and correctly.
branches crossing or rubbing against each other and shoots growing into the center of the canopy. Make your cuts to a side branch or close to the trunk. Head back wayward and unbranched limbs. As it grows taller, remove lower branches as needed.
Crepe Myrtles should be low-maintenance trees and the best way to ensure this is to plant the right tree in the right place that best suits your landscape needs. They prefer full sun and are a good tree choice near power lines because they are not large trees. There are many new Crepe Myrtle cultivars in small and medium sizes and colors. Before planting, visualize in your minds eye how large the tree will be in 20 years. Choose a planting location with plenty of space to grow if it’s near a house, sidewalk or driveway.
Remove any future growth from the ground to retain the desired tree shape. The exception to this rule is if your Crepe’s lower trunks have been badly girdled by mowers or string trimmers. If this happens, mulch the tree to protect it from future mower and trimmer damage. Allow 3-5 of the healthiest shoots to grow from the outside of the trunk until they are large and remove the girdled and diseased interior trunk in the future. (You see this technique for the girdled Crepe’s along Maguire Road in Windermere.)
The best pruning time is winter or early spring when your Crepe Myrtle is dormant. As deciduous trees drop their leaves you see bare trunk, branches and bark. Pruning at this time promotes less disease and exposure to pests and allows you to see the graceful structure of the tree. Walk 360° degrees around the tree and visualize the form of the tree before you start to prune. Pruning cuts should be done right above the “branch collar,” the wrinkled section where the branches fork into each other. This allows for good healing of wound wood, disease prevention and discourages boring beetles.
You may feel the need to improve the appearance by removing the seed heads in late winter or early spring before growth begins. Remove seed heads only after seed eating birds finish their winter migration because they depend on this food. Crepe Myrtles don’t require heavy pruning to promote bloom. Flowers are produced on new growth. It will produce flowers without any pruning, although it will produce larger flowers and bloom more profusely if lightly pruned. Pruning in late winter or early spring stimulates tree hormones for vigorous new growth in the spring. Encourage a second bloom in summer by pruning flowers immediately after they fade.
As the tree matures, remove lower, lateral branches (“limbing up”) one-third to halfway up the height of the plant. Remove
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