Pruning Crape Myrtles
There is an art to pruning a crape myrtle – and it’s important, so important, the wrongful pruning of a crape myrtle can result in what is known as: Crape Murder.
What is Crape Murder? Crape Murder is improper pruning by cutting the tops out of your crapes. Many time what happen is one person sees a neighbor or maybe even a landscape company doing it so that person thinks they need to do it to their own trees.
Purchase the Right Size Crape Myrtle
Typically size is the first decision an purchaser makes when selecting a crape myrtle, followed by color!
A person recently bought a crape from me and said she understood that she should not cut the tops off her crape myrtle, but she wanted to keep the crape to about 6 ft tall.
Many varieties of Crape Myrtles reach 30 feet.
A Muskogee Crape Myrtle typically reaches 25 feet. If you want a Crape Myrtle that is only six feet tall, you should purchase a crape myrtle that reaches only six feet.
- Dwarf Crapes reach 3 feet
- Semi Dwarf Crapes reach 6 feet
- Medium Crapes grow to about 10 feet
- Full size Crape Myrtle trees reach 20 to 30 feet tall.
We are working on excellent images of proper pruning (and a couple of improper, too!)
