Hello,

I have a young Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) looking now like this:




It is about 8 yrs old, never trimmed, never adjusted, never pruned.

The idea is that I want to prune and trim it to develop it into this:

How to do it ?

Thanks in advance,
Q.T.

Q.T.!
You're well on your way! Thin out some of the lower branches, especially any that cross over others. You could cut the tallest ones down to the same height as the main mass. Give it time and continue cutting to make it a kind of 'ball' shape. Crapes are great for training and take all kinds of abuse.

CPPgardener said: Q.T.!
You're well on your way! Thin out some of the lower branches, especially any that cross over others. You could cut the tallest ones down to the same height as the main mass. Give it time and continue cutting to make it a kind of 'ball' shape. Crapes are great for training and take all kinds of abuse.

Thanks for your advice, but could you be ore specific please? Where to cut exactly ? Which branch ? Tx.

PS: Some local gardener (which I don't really trust) suggested me to simply prune it completely at less than half size, now being about 2.3m tall. Is this advice good ?

Quda, welcome!! We have both the shrub and tree form, and you would die to see
how much we cut them back. They grow back each year stronger and if you don't
do a hard shaping and keep them under control they will take off on you! John gave you some great advice. Clean up the bottom and shape the top!

karmahappytoes said: Quda, welcome!! We have both the shrub and tree form, and you would die to see
how much we cut them back. They grow back each year stronger and if you don't
do a hard shaping and keep them under control they will take off on you! John gave you some great advice. Clean up the bottom and shape the top!

Thank you much. Probably I wasn't fair from the beginning by not adding that I am a total newbie in terms of gardening/plants.
Your advice for sure are both very good, but it's me who is...stupid.
When you say bottom I have understand where exactly. The same about the top, at what level starts/ends the top.
Could one of you be nice and mark these on the photos I uploaded please? What branch to cut, where to cut, when to do it etc.
Thanks in advance,
Q.T.

Hope this helps but for now do nothing until it's done blooming, enjoy. In a month or so clip off the above the red area and the one limb that goes off to the side. Make your cuts right at the base of the limb as you can. The top you want to find a good set of leaves and cut right above them. Now you can remove the area below the yellow line right at the trunk area to form a trunk area. Scream at me if you need more directions. Hope this helps.

Karma's advice is great! I'm crap at drawing on pictures, so I can only describe my ideas. The only change I would make to Karma's suggestions would be to leave the side branch and maybe thin out the twigs in the lower third. Have fun with it and rest assured you can't kill it unless you dig it up!

karmahappytoes said:

Hope this helps but for now do nothing until it's done blooming, enjoy. In a month or so clip off the above the red area and the one limb that goes off to the side. Make your cuts right at the base of the limb as you can. The top you want to find a good set of leaves and cut right above them. Now you can remove the area below the yellow line right at the trunk area to form a trunk area. Scream at me if you need more directions. Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot man!
I will do it in September and post here the result.
Cheers,
Q.T.

quda, try your hand in rooting those larger pieces in water!

karmahappytoes said: quda, try your hand in rooting those larger pieces in water!

Nope. I didn't do anything yet in the garden as I had medical issues during the past months.

Now I am pretty ok and I intend to go out again to take care of my garden.

I just don't know if it is the right season for adjusting the crepe myrtle: mid winter but very mild in this area, between 5 and 10 °C, but bad weather with frost and blizzard is expected for the last week of January.

Should I trim it now or wait for spring ?

I'm first and foremost amazed that it's still this small after 8 years of growth without ever being pruned. This tells me there's something smelly going on underground. I'd investigate this first (NOW when it's dormant) or until there's no severe frosts on the way.

Arico said: I'm first and foremost amazed that it's still this small after 8 years of growth without ever being pruned. This tells me there's something smelly going on underground...

How can I investigate what is "smelly" in the underground ? All the plants in that part of my garden are doing pretty well.
Maybe it is small because is in partial shadow or because it suffered a couple of nasty frosts several years ago.

quda said: How can I investigate what is "smelly" in the underground ? All the plants in that part of my garden are doing pretty well.
Maybe it is small because is in partial shadow or because it suffered a couple of nasty frosts several years ago.

Shade does play a role and frost too if it caused dieback. But many woody perennials are notorious for possessing bad root systems (cirlcing/girdling, j-hooks etc, or the presence of twine/burlap/wire cages) that become problematic as the years pass. Up to you to decide.

Anyway, your specimen is already multistemmed, so to increase it further, you need to induce dormant buds lower down (they are inhibited by the actively growing tops) to break into growth and grow into branches. You do this by pruning (hard) somewhere above that.

There is also the possibility/probability that it is a dwarf/semi-dwarf variety that won't get that big.
You can pull some some of the soil away from the very bottom of the trunk to look for circling roots. Crepe Myrtles tend not to have growth issues from those, though.

I was going to say, those of that color don't get as bushy around here, they stay slim and smaller - Though Arkansas has some that are small bushes, I have rarely seen that one grow much.

The goal plant looks like one that has been pollarded annually. Search the WWW for "crape murder" and you'll find limitless info & pics.

purpleinopp said: The goal plant looks like one that has been pollarded annually. Search the WWW for "crape murder" and you'll find limitless info & pics.

While not every tree species is suited for pollarding, crepe myrtles seem to be. It's been done in Europe for centuries, and we still do. Most notable are Salix, Corylus, Quercus, Alnus mostly in more rural settings; Catalpa and Robinia in garden settings. While I personally don't like it, it's a matter of taste...

I respect that. It's overdone with CM's around my area. For 5 months, there are knobby sticks lining the middle of the downtown areas of the towns, and they are everywhere in the landscaping.

Once a tree is cut, it can't go back to looking like a normal tree. So then cutting it annually seems to be the only way to get a lot of blooms. We tried to quit pollarding some trees @ my mom's house, but they did nothing until they got cut again. They only look good for the season after being cut. If a year is skipped, it's a down year for the appearance, few leaves, hardly any blooms.

Aside from the strange appearance of the pollarded ones for almost half of the year, I'm not a fan of any landscaping done with the specific intention of it being an ongoing maintenance task. Also a matter of taste and personal preference, but when I get old and can't do yard work anymore, I don't want to have to beg or pay someone to trim shrubs that could have just been planted where they have room to grow unmolested.

CM is a lovely tree, either way. Just some food for thought since it's a one-way street once it's done once.

Pollarding was originally developed as a way to produce kindling and small branches for cooking and heating fires. Every year you cut off the previous growth and let it dry for next winter.
Coppicing is a more extreme form where the tree is cut almost to the ground. Either way can produce extra-large leaves on the vigorous new growth and prevent flowering and reseeding of aggressive species.

purpleinopp said: Once a tree is cut, it can't go back to looking like a normal tree.

I'm not a fan of any landscaping done with the specific intention of it being an ongoing maintenance task.

There is a way to get those yucky looking plants to look normal again... If yer willing to cut down to the ground and start over...

They spring back from the stump immediately... You then have to pick one or two or three stems to encourage while keeping the rest cut back...

But... Completely agree that something that requires constant re-doing is crappy yard maintenance...

So much else I could be doing instead.