UACES Facebook Crape Myrtle

Crape Myrtle

September 30, 2017


Is it too late for me to trim crape myrtles and red top photinias? I also have some large woody plants that are growing around my back yard that I have cut back but they just seem to be doing better than ever. I have heard that you put salt on them to kill them. Is it rock salt, how do you do it without killing everything around it?



The time to prune crape myrtles is in February, before new growth begins.  Pruning them in the fall can expose them to winter damage if we have a cold winter.  The key is to get them through the bulk of the winter before pruning.  If your red top photinia just needs a light trim, that is fine to do now, but severe pruning--removing more than 1/3 of the plant should be done in the spring; you don’t want to encourage too much new growth this late in the season.  I do not like to use salt to kill plants, as salt will stay in the soil for a long time and can leach out and damage nearby root systems.  Once you cut the trees down, you can paint the stumps with an herbicide such as Brush-B-Gon, Brush Killer or Roundup Super Concentrate.  Monitor these trees next spring as new growth begins, and if you see new growth repeat the above process.


January 30, 2016







November 2014

QuestionLast year I asked about trimming crape myrtles and you sent me a picture of how it should look after trimming. My husband did a great job of following the picture. However, we did not get any blooms this year while all of our neighbors, who murdered theirs, have prolific blooms. What did we do wrong?


AnswerNormally pruning alone does not interfere with blooming, unless you prune late in the growing season—they bloom on new growth.  How much sunlight do the plants receive?  As you saw, severe pruning (crape murder) doesn’t hurt blooming, but often the blooms are produced on such weak stems that they become weeping crape myrtles instead of upright forms.  Proper pruning also should not impact or prevent flowering, but should have the blooms on upright stems.   Many crape myrtles were later blooming this year due to the milder season, but eventually they did bloom. 


October 2012

QuestionMy husband and I are going to trim the crepe myrtles on Military Dr in NLR for the Amboy Neighborhood Association. When is the best time to trim crepe myrtles? Also, can the bushy ones be thinned down to three or four stalks and trimmed up like trees?


AnswerThe best time to prune crape myrtles is before new growth begins in the spring—typically late February. It is preferable to trim a standard variety as a tree, instead of a bush, but it can take a few years to change.

January 2012




October 2010

QuestionI need to know what to do about off-shoots from crape myrtles that will not kill the mother tree. I have a tree that is probably 30-40 years old and from its wandering root system, shoots appear every year and this year some are blooming. For years I have just cut them off, but wonder if there is a product that I can use to control them without harm to the main tree.


AnswerContinue doing what you are doing. There is nothing you could spray with that would kill the sprouts but not hurt the mother plant. Most of these suckers are attached to the mother plant. Some varieties are more prone to suckering than others, so just cut each season.

February 2010




March 2005




February 2008

QuestionI have heard your response on how to properly prune a crape myrtle, but I have one unanswered question. We purchased a house with several crape myrtles that have already been cut back to that loathsome four foot height. All small branches have been removed and each crape myrtle has about five main trunks. If I want to let them grow as you recommend, should I cut all the branches back to ground level in one fell swoop or will that kill the plant? I don't want the pollarded look at the four foot height, and I don't want to aggressively prune the crape myrtle every year. I suspect the plants are ten to fifteen years old.


AnswerIt is February, so it is the proper month to prune a crape myrtle. Unfortunately, if you have a tree that has been butchered in the past, it is not a quick fix. You do have some options. One would be to do as you ask, and start over by cutting the plant to the ground. This will take time to restructure the tree. If you do this, choose three to five sprouts that appear, and prune out everything else. Gradually shape it into a tree. The other option is to cut out the knobs and then choose one sprout that appears from that point this growing season and grow it into a tree, or prune to the strongest branch that is growing above the knob and let it become a true branch, cutting out all the other twigs from that knob.

September 2009

QuestionWe set out crape myrtle trees this summer. When is the best time to trim the lower branches so that it will bush out more at the top? They have done very well.


AnswerPruning lower limbs is not going to have much impact on branching at the top of the plants. Removing lower limbs gives you more of a tree like appearance, but to encourage better branching at the top, prune to buds on upper branches to encourage fullness. Pruning of crape myrtles should be done in late February to early March.

December 2009

QuestionI have what I think are several dwarf crepe myrtles in the flower beds around my home. They grow in a bushy mounded shape and I would like to prune them back some. (They are bare right now.) When is the best time to prune them? What is the correct way to prune them? I know how to prune my large tree-like crepe myrtles, but I have never pruned the dwarf variety.


AnswerDwarf crape myrtles never produce beautiful bark like their tree-like counterparts, so correct pruning is not as much of an issue here. I still prefer to wait until late February to prune them for added winter protection, but you can prune them back by half or more every year. The key here is to encourage new growth, keep them in the height range you want and let them bloom on the new growth. With some of the newer varieties of dwarf crape myrtles they are grown as ground covers and spread wider than they do tall.

January 2010

QuestionWe have a crepe myrtle that has not been trimmed for 20 years. It has branched out at least 20 feet wide with many stems (or trunks) some of which are four inches in diameter and the base is probably 30 inches in diameter. It must stand 12-15 feet tall. How do we trim it back? When do we cut back? Where do we start? Another crepe myrtle nearby is much smaller but is beginning to spread the same way. How should it be trimmed?


AnswerCrape myrtles come in a variety of mature sizes from ground covers to mature trees getting 25-35 feet tall. My preference is if you have the standard tree forms that you allow them to be trees. I like three to five main trunks and everything else pruned out. Then shape them with a good branching structure. Twenty feet wide is more a large bush. Thinning them out and reshaping may take time, but at least they aren't cut back to those ugly knobs every year. The best time to prune is late February to mid March after the bulk of winter weather has passed.

February 2010

QuestionWe recently moved into a house with six well established crape myrtles in the front yard. The problem is that they have been whacked on pretty bad and have huge ugly knots. They have flowered well but still have knots that just look disgusting during the winter months. Should I get out the big saw and cut these trees back below the knots or are they supposed to be cut above the knots or what? I've watched your pruning video but nothing is mentioned about trees that a person "inherits" which have been butchered. I'm a newbie with these beautiful trees and would like to clean up the mess that has been made and give them a chance to start over. Can you possibly give me some very detailed instructions for how to make them look good again?


AnswerYou have a couple of options. One is to cut off the horrid knots, and then when multiple sprouts begin growing this spring, choose two to three of the sprouts and prune all the others off. Then next spring, prune off anything smaller than a pencil in diameter and gradually grow some taller stronger branches. The other option is to leave the knots but choose three of the strongest branches that are growing from them, and prune off everything else. Eventually you can restructure them into beautiful trees which are as pretty in the winter as in the summer and fall, but it will take several years.

September 2007

QuestionI need some help and information regarding our crape myrtle. Before we moved into our new home in September the builder planted a crape myrtle tree and it was blooming beautifully. The crape myrtle started to leaf out this spring and then we got hit with another hard freeze; the trees new growth was killed off. It finally started growing again in the spring from the bottom up, but it had a lot of dead branches on top. My husband cut the dead branches off, but since then the tree has not bloomed. Did he prune the tree incorrectly to discourage the blooms? We live in Bentonville.


AnswerYou aren't alone in the damage to crape myrtles. They were damaged somewhat statewide, but annihilated in Northwest Arkansas. They were well ahead of their normal schedule due to the mild March, so the late freezes did even more damage. For now, you simply must be patient and gradually retrain them into trees. Many crape myrtles bloomed more sparsely than normal if at all this summer. What I like to see in a crape myrtle are three to five main trunks and branching beginning about five to six feet off the ground. Prune as needed next February.

April 2007




June 2006

QuestionWe moved here from Colorado and had a landscaper do some work in our yard last summer. I like the Crepe Myrtles and wanted some in my flower bed next to house. He said they would do fine there since they can be pruned back to whatever shape desired. Since then I have had neighbors say they do much better away from house so they can grow larger. The ones put in are not the small-type-bushes, they are the larger bushes. Should I move them away from house and give them more space in yard? Does it damage Crepe Myrtles to prune them back each year keeping them at a smaller size? Also, would it damage them to move them as they were planted July, 2005? Just not sure if these Crepe Myrtles will get too big in 3 to 5 years. There are 7 of them next to house. Any help you can give me will be much appreciated. I also learned to check out landscapers a lot better in future.


AnswerIt is quite obvious from the butchered crape myrtles all over the south that crape myrtles can be severely pruned each year with no loss of life, but I am with your neighbors in that they will be more attractive plants if they are given space to grow and allowed to do so. Standard crape myrtles have outstanding bark if they are allowed to become trees and their floral display is nothing to sneeze at. There are dwarf varieties that can and often should take severe pruning each year, and they might be good replacements. Crape myrtles can be moved, and yours are still young. I would have preferred to move them in February, but it can still be done now, if you are prepared to water and allow them to wilt and look sad for a week or two. Crape myrtles aren't the only "trees" that some landscapers plant as foundation plantings. I cringe when I see river birch and Bradford pears planted next to a house--they are large trees at maturity!

March 2005






