Category: Crape Myrtle

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Pruning and Limbing Up Crape Myrle

Lagerstroemia indica by jacilluch

Bernadette asked TheGardenLady when would be the best time to prune her crape myrtle/Lagerstroemia tree.

You can always prune off dead or broken branches at any time of the year on your crape myrtle or any shrub or tree. You can also cut off the dead blossoms after flowering if you don’t like the looks of them- the ones you can reach, that is.( sometimes this will force the crape myrtle to send out more flowers) If you don’t mind leaving the blossom ends, you don’t have to even cut those lower blossom ends. Some people think they have winter interest and birds like  to eat the seeds in the winter. Of course, you don’t have to bother with the blossom ends you cannot reach at the top of the plant because nature will dispose of them.

The crape myrtle does not need much pruning if you like the shape it is in. It is the kind of shrub I like, the lazy man’s shrub.

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People Enjoy Crape Myrtle in TheGardenLady’s Garden

Lagerstroemia by Koshyk

TheGardenLady is back to writing about some of the flowers in her garden that make people stop and ooh and aah. Today she will talk about Crape myrtle, also known as Lagerstroemia, which is the Latin name for this gorgeous large shrub or small tree that blooms in late summer.

TheGardenLady is so thrilled that they have developed Crape myrtles that are hardy to USDA Hardiness Temp. Zone 6 so that I can have this show off shrub in my garden. Up until these new hardy plants were developed, Crape myrtles only grew in Zones 7-9.   (see here)

These are called four season plants because their bark is interesting in the winter, some have maroon new leaves in the spring, they have flowers in summer and their foliage may turn color in the fall.