About Growing Crape Myrtles, Tips And Ideas

Growing Crape Myrtles, tips and ideas, is intended to provide information to the home owners and gardening and landscaping enthusiasts, that wants to improve the value of their home.

A popular tree in the South, the Crape Myrtle (Lagerostroemia indica) is widely used in the landscapes, due to the long blooming period. It blooms from mid-summer until late fall, and sometimes until frost.

In the autumn before the Crape Myrtle is dropping the leaves, the color is turning reddish, and the exfoliating of the bark is simply beautiful, and very attractive.

In addition of being so popular in the South, in the last few decades, with the introduction and development of new cultivars, the demand for the Crape Myrtle is expanding towards the Northern states, and it is used more and more in landscape projects by the professionals, Cities, Municipalities around the Country, as well as by the home owners.

The Crape Myrtles are planted along driveways, alleys, walkways, along fences, in group planting, accent focal points, and anyway one can think of. They are easy to grow, easy to propagate, and once established it does not require too much care.

They are grown in very many different color blooms, but the main ones are the red, white, pink, purple, lavender, some of the varieties in darker or lighter color tones.

Cultivating:

The Crape Myrtle can be grown as a single trunk, or multi-trunk. To grow it as a single trunk, in tree form, you want to prune all the branches and leave only one as the main trunk. Usually you want to keep the one that is stronger and straight. If you prefer the multi-trunk, then leave all the branches to grow, and later prune only the ones that are not well developed. Just keep the strongest ones.

If it happens that you have a single trunk Crape Myrtle, and you want to change the shape to a multi-trunk tree, you can do that, very easily. Just have a little patience, and wait until next January or February, while the trees are still dormant, and cut the trunk all the way down, and leave about 2 to 3 inches above the ground level. The tree will start growing multiple trunks from where you cut it.

The pruning should be done while dormant, usually in January or February, before they start to put out buds. So, that is a good time to shape them any way you like, and to prune off any unwanted suckers.

Once the Crape Myrtles are well established, do not be afraid to prune them more drastically. If you want them to grow more vigorous, first you should cut them back to the desired height. And then at the next season's pruning, after they branched out from the previous year's cut, prune from where they were branching out. Just cut all the limbs that run from the main trunk, to about 2 to 3 inches from the main trunk(s), and the little branches that are not well developed, the suckers, that you want to cut off.

Pruning is important, if you want to have large vibrant, deeper color tone blooms! If left to grow without some drastic pruning, you might have a lot of flowers, but they will be small.

The Crape Myrtle can grow about 20 to 25 feet tall, and they grow pretty fast.

They prefer full sun and a well air circulated area to keep them from getting powdery mildew. If it happens to get some powdery mildew, due to lack of air circulation, it is not a big problem. It comes and goes. Usually the rain will wash it off, and the wind will play a great roll, too, to make it disappear faster.

Too much shade will inhibit the blooming, and the flowers will not develop as they should. So full sun is essential, and the display is more spectacular in the landscape, with much larger blooms.

Keep them moist but not soggy. Once established they can pretty much tolerate some drought. If the soil is more alkaline, you can lower the pH to about 5.5 to 6.00, by mulching around the trees with pine-straw, to make it a little more acidic.

If the soil is rather poor in nutrients, fertilize lightly with a well balanced fertilizer. I prefer the slow released fertilizer, like Osmocote or Nursery Special. Apply as a top dress, around the trunk of the trees. It always worked better for me. The flowers are more vivid and vibrant in color tones.

When planting the Crape Myrtles, like any other tree or shrubs, dig the hole at least one and a half the size of the root ball, and just slightly less deeper than it was in the original container when you have bought it. It is better to be a little above the line of the soil, to allow the water to drain away from the base of the tree.

Many diseases and other rot and fungus problems occur when the plants are planted deeper then they should.

Fill the hole with the dirt that you just dug out, and press around to eliminate any air pockets from around the roots. Water well and deep. Just a sprinkle on the top of the soil will never be enough! Mulch with about 2 to 3 inches of pine-straws to retain moisture, and keep it moist until the tree is getting established. More that the Crape Myrtle does not require too much care.

Propagation:

The Crape Myrtle is pretty easy to propagate.

By seeds, that you can pick from the pods in autumn, before the seed falls on the ground. Use some fine peat-moss based potting soil, with some micro-nutrients blend, and fill some 2 to 4 inch pots with the soil, and sow one seed in a pot. Keep evenly moist until it germinates. for a faster germination soak the seeds in water at room temperature for several hours. Keep them indoors in a place where there is some good light, preferable close to a window. If you have a little greenhouse, that is even better. Once they germinate, you can grow them in the same pot until spring, when you can plant them outside, after the danger of late frost is past.

By rooted cuttings. Cut some new young branches (semi-hardwood is preferable), and after you cut the lower end slanted with a sharp knife, pinch off the leaves from the portion of the stem that you stick in the potting soil. Pinch off the tips, and leave only 4 or 5 leaves. For best results, the cuttings (the stems), should be no more than 5 to 6 inches long. A root hormone would accelerate to rooting process, but for the Crape Myrtles it can be done without it.

Once you stick them in the soil, press around the cutting to eliminate any air pockets.

Since the new cuttings have no roots yet, they feed through the leaves. So sprinkle the leaves several times a day, with a fine mist, or even a spray bottle should do. Make sure that the soil is wet too, so that the little cuttings are forced to reach down for moisture, thus growing the roots.

Some cultivars are more resistant than others on powdery mildew. But that is coming and going. Just keep an eye on the aphids, that leave a kind of a sticky excretions on the leaves that attracts the sooty mold fungus. If left un controlled it can become so thick as not to allow the plant to have its photothynseses, and that can create some problems, to the point that the Crape Myrtle will deteriorate.

The Aphids can be controlled by spraying with a lemon based dish washing soap solution mixed in water, and applied heavily on the affected leaves. Then after a while just rinse the soap solution off with a water hose. An area populated with lady bugs and lace wings (those green beneficial bugs) could help a lot! They feed heavily on the aphids.

As you can see, the Crape Myrtle is easy to grow and it does not require too much care. It will give you many years of enjoyment and satisfaction, blooming year after year as well as improving and elevating the value and the image of your home.

In my many years of experience in the Nursery and Landscaping field, I had many projects that worked out very nicely by planting Crape Myrtles.

So, what are you waiting for? Let's get our hands dirty, it is good for you!

Until next time, Happy Gardening!

Mike Borlovan