This Crape Myrtle has been
whacked!
Picture: Tom MacCubbin
Observation of the whacking and hacking around town says
there are many options when it comes to the care of
crape myrtles. You are also going to find many gardeners
choose to do nothing and let the shrubs or small trees
grow naturally and they do just fine. Others like to
prune off the old fruit capsules which you refer to as
berries. These are cut back to a point on the stems
about the diameter of your finger.
Gardeners who
do light pruning often also remove some of the twiggy
growths and shoots that compete with each other plus
excess stems from the base of the plants. This is the
kindest pruning and you are still going to get good
growth and flowering. Then there are pruners who insist
on cutting their crape myrtles way back. No one seems to
really know why such harsh pruning is needed as it
produces an atypical shrub or tree often with delayed
flowering. No matter what you plan to do, now is the
time to do the pruning.
In order to have good
growth and flowering crape myrtles need more than good
pruning. The trees like a moist soil. I know, many say
they are drought tolerant and they are. But if you want
good growth they need moisture too. Then you need to
feed the plants. A fertilizer application in March, June
and August is best using a standard landscape product or
one of the new slow release products like the
Miracle-Gro Shake'n Feed or Osmocote. Just follow the
label.
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