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Pleasant Landscapes Newsletter - Winter 2008Crype Myrtle or Crype Murder, The DifferenceOver the last 5 years, we have heard the term Crype Murder as a buzz word in our community. Now that we have received our first frost and our Crype Myrtles have lost their leaves, it is time to do our seasonal pruning of the Crype Myrtle plants. First, it is almost impossible to murder a Crype Myrtle plant. I remember seven or eight years ago when we were renovating the Cavlario, we had to remove a Crype Myrtle to make room for new parking and renovations for the new Rick Hendricks car lot . We pulled this Crype Myrtle out of the ground with a tractor and drug it across the pavement and put it on the side of the property to deal with later on. During the 30 - 90 days of renovation we almost forgot about this plant. Towards the end of the project we noticed it was still sitting there and to our amazement had new shoots coming off of it. We replanted it and it is now surviving there today. Thus, proving to me that Crype Myrtles are one of the hardest plants in the LowCountry.
The first evaluation method is: Where was it planted? Some of them are planted on entryways or homes and are specifically meant to be a certain controlled height. A Crype Myrtle planted on the side of a 2 story home should be forced to bloom between the 1st and 2nd story. If it is in front of a home, it should be forced to bloom below the height of the railings. In some cases these plants get planted in the wrong spot, and it would be best to transplant them. Hardly any landscaping material, including Crype Myrtles, should have foliage that covers windows, railings, molding, roof eves, gutters or other architectural features of the home. If your Crype Myrtle covers the architecture of your home, it is a candidate for some severe pruning. This will often include taking off at least one year’s growth and sometimes more if not seasonally done. You can often judge a year’s growth by where it was cut last and the distance it has grown from that “Y” or cut joint. Your plant will most likely grow the same amount this year and so you can reduce the plant by the appropriate amount - so the blooms will hit where your landscape designer planned it. If you have a problem determining your pruning height, feel free to email me a picture and I will draw a line at the appropriate pruning height and return it to you. The other instance of Crype Myrtle pruning is when you have a stand alone Crype Myrtle tree. A Crype Myrtle could use the height to hide an adjacent neighbor, or maybe an old historic Crype Myrtle that lines the roadway, or a Crype Myrtle that has gotten so big that it has become a nice shade tree. (Or you would like your Crype Myrtle to become a shade tree.) This size Crype Myrtle is usually not planted within 15 feet of a structure. These Crype Myrtles were planted to become a tree form and to become 20 - 50 feet in height. They still continue to bloom even with little to no pruning. For the older tree form Crype Myrtle, usually the sprouts and rubbing branches are removed to give a neat tree form appearance, and the top of the tree is left to grow on it’s own. I believe the “murder” phrase came around when someone chain sawed a 4 to 8 inch trunk diameter (historic Crype Myrtle ) down to four feet. This may or may not have been necessary depending on the location of the tree. Another aspect of pruning, is a leveling process, often Crype Myrtles that are planted on the left & right side of a house or in a formal garden do not match each other. This is because of the amount of sunlight or root issues. For this leveling process we take a 7-12 foot PVC pipe that we make 1 foot increment marks on the upper end of the pipe. We then proceed to the smallest Crype Myrtle in the set and decide at which mark we will make the other entire Crype Myrtle match up to. We will prune the smallest Crype Myrtle first (often it will only have a few trimmings to remove) being sure to remove all the sucker branches (little branches that come off the side of the main trunk). Then after it has been done we will proceed through the entire set. At the end of the process they should all match each other. It is good practice to be sure to use clean pruning shears so you don’t spread any plant diseases. You can dip the shears in a mild solution of bleach and water if doing large quantities of pruning. (You should dip in between each tree.) Also while you are getting up close and personal to your Crype Myrtle it is a good time to inspect the tree for scale or a black sooty mold left by aphids earlier in the growing season. We will discuss these treatments in upcoming issues. As with always – if you have any gardening questions feel free to email or contact me at the credentials listed below. James Parker / Pleasant
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P.O. Box 445 - Isle of Palms, South Carolina 29451 - Phone 843.886.9316 | Fax 843.886.4918
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