ALIBIS FOR CREPE MURDER
My neighbors pruned theirs.
Improper pruning is a copycat crime. Each tree has a
different form, and its role varies from one landscape to the next. Therefore, you need to figure
out why you are pruning before you cut a branch.
It's getting too big.
If your tree is too tall, then you have the wrong one. Pruning
to reduce its height will only create a maintenance battle that you will never win.
Fortunately, even large crepe myrtles can be transplanted with success. Replace yours with a
different kind of plant or a shorter selection of crepe myrtle. Acoma, Catawba, Cherokee, Comanche,
Hopi, and Sioux are a few of the semidwarf forms that reach 8 to 14 feet in height in about 10
years. If you want a shrub, try Centennial, Victor, Prairie Lace, or Hope; these grow 3 to 4 feet
tall. Natchez, Muskogee, Fantasy, Dallas Red, Byers Wonderful White, Watermelon Red, and Biloxi all
grow at least 20 feet, so plant them where their height will be an asset.
If I don't prune my tree, it won't bloom.
Pruning will not inspire flowering; it will
just bring the flowers down to where you can see them. Often, trees that fail to bloom are growing
under too much shade, so move them to the sun.
It looks scraggly.
Crepe myrtles naturally send up new shoots called suckers from
their base. While multitrunk trees are handsome, too many trunks can appear unkempt. Use hand
clippers to cut off all unwanted suckers at the surface of the soil. Now is a good time.
I'm just shaping it up.
Don't cut to see over them, cut to see through them. Remove
limbs from the inside of the tree, especially limbs that cross or hang so low that they hit you in
the face. Remove entire limbs flush with the trunk as shown in Order in the Cut box. If
you leave a stub, four or five new shoots will grow in place of the one you removed.
MAKING REPARATIONS
If your tree has been damaged by improper pruning, you can restore it. Cuts on young limbs (2 inches or less in diameter) can be repaired as shown in Reform School box. But larger limbs that
have been lopped off or repeatedly pruned so that they have developed a knuckle need to be removed
entirely. Trees that have been cut back to trunks 4 or 5 inches in diameter will never look natural
again. These need to be cut flush to the ground so new trunks can be trained to replace the old.
A shallow cut under the limb prevents tearing the bark as the limb falls.
Cut the limb off by sawing down from the top at a point several inches beyond the initial cut.
The last cut removes any stub that remains, leaving a smooth-edged wound that will heal without a dressing.
