How To Trim Your Crape Myrtle
An Informative Article By Yellow River Landscaping - Covington Georgia
As most people know, there are few trees as colorful and loud as a crape myrtle. However, there are also very few trees that require as much maintenance. Due to the shrub-like fullness of a crape myrtle and consistent growth, it does not take much for one to get out of hand. Here we will give some professional advice for homeowners who want to clean up their crape myrtles and promote new growth in the right way.
First, you need to know when to trim your crape myrtle. It is important to not trim your tree during the summer or fall. This is because any trimming or cutting will open up your tree and promote new growth, so you want to make cuts near the same time when the weather is first beginning to support this behavior. Some very small pruning can be okay early in the summer to promote more blooms, but if you trim your tree during the summer, it is possible that the new growth will be cut off by cold weather moving forward. The best time of year to cut crape myrtle is very late winter, just before the spring will allow the tree to grow and bloom. Here in Covington, GA that would be early to mid March.
Second, you need to know what to trim, and what to leave untouched. This can come down to preference on how many main trunks you want your tree to have or how wide you want it to be. Typically a crape myrtle should have anywhere from three to eight main branches stemming from the root ball. They should all be somewhat close together, as sometimes there are many new stems that come out of the ground outside of the main base of the tree, which you will usually want to trim as low as possible. After you know which branches you want to keep as your base, you typically want to trim off any excess coming off these main branches below four feet (depending on your variety of crape myrtle). Any branches or twigs that are touching or intertwined should be pruned off as well, since they will choke off one another’s vegetation and give the tree a more crowded look.
What not to do
- When trimming your crape myrtle you need to make sure you do not just pick a height and chop everything off straight across. Although the flat-top look will provide blooms in the spring and summer, it is not ideal for the long term. Cutting the top clean off your crape myrtle will create a spider-web effect on the upper half of the tree, with too many skinny twigs that will not look good without blooms, as well as typically being too thin to support the weight of the blooms.
- When trimming any tree, you also need to remember how to cut the larger branches. Avoid cutting from the top down, or in any way that causes the weight of the branch to be pulled down on the uncut portion. This causes breakage in the branches that can harm the tree later on. If this happens, it is recommended that you try to get a clean cut further down the damaged branch.
- It is also very important to make sure you know which variety you need for the space it is intended to fill. There are many different varieties of crape myrtles, so before you purchase one, make sure to let a nursery expert know where you plan to put it, and ask them if that is a plausible option. It is far too often that they are planted in corners very close to homes, in places where they have no room to grow. This is why it is so common that they are trimmed in the “flat-top” pattern, because there is no other way to fit them in the place they were planted. Just be sure that if you want to plant your tree near something that would get in the way of growth, that you get a variety that can be sustained in a healthy manner without getting too large to interfere with its surroundings.
If you follow these steps you can have a clean and professionally trimmed crape myrtle with tons of blooms without the cost of hiring a professional. Otherwise, or for any more questions just call Yellow River Landscaping LLC at
678-544-3807, servicing all of Covington and surrounding areas.
For more tips or contact information, visit
yellowriverlandscaping.com
