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Joylynn Hardesty

master pollinator

Posts: 5266

Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee

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posted 3 months ago

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Tree? Shrub? Dunno. Woody trunk, currently 6 feet tall with the bloom at the central leader. It must be a gift from the birdies! I bent the branches around to get details. It is growing upward, not naturally bending down.

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series

Jackson Bradley

pollinator

Posts: 608

Location: Zone 8A

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posted 3 months ago

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Looks like Crepe Myrtle to me!

"The genius of American farm experts is very well demonstrated here: they can take a solution and divide it neatly into two problems." -Wendell Berry

Judith Browning

Posts: 9890

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3043

posted 3 months ago

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crepe myrtle?
It's almost a weed shrub here and will grow into a tree if pruned and new growth doesn't freeze.

I'm starting to appreciate them as shade and flowers.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

greg mosser

gardener

Posts: 1818

Location: the mountains of katuah, southern appalachia

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posted 3 months ago

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yep, crepe myrtle x3!

Joylynn Hardesty

master pollinator

Posts: 5266

Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee

2230

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posted 3 months ago

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Thanks guys! I would like to keep it under 10 feet tall. Any tips on pruning?

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2105

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 3 months ago

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I don't know crepe myrtle can grow from seed. A sizeable tree from Lowe's is sold for $30. You just save some money! It blooms from new wood so just cut it to the ground in late winter.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

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Jackson Bradley

pollinator

Posts: 608

Location: Zone 8A

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posted 3 months ago

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Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Thanks guys! I would like to keep it under 10 feet tall. Any tips on pruning?

We do not have any of these but our neighbors on both sides of us do. I talked to both of them about their style of pruning. The one neighbor did light pruning until they could no longer reach from the ground and then did no pruning. Theirs are about 25'-30' tall and in front of their house. The sun is on it's way up on that side so the picture is not the best.

The other neighbor does a hard prune/topping in late winter/spring to about 5' high on all the branches. That makes it shorter and bushier. That one stays 7'-10' tall. He has 5 total and they are all in that height range.

If you want short and bushy, do a hard prune/topping to 5'. I think there could be some controversy around this style where folks say you are stressing/weakening/killing the tree with the hard prune. I am not sure about that because the hard prune neighbor has been hard pruning his since 2004. Hopefully you get a good range of opinions in the replies.

I think I like the tall ones best but would not like them next to my house like my one neighbor has them in the pic.

Hard-Prune.jpg

Light-no-prune.jpg

"The genius of American farm experts is very well demonstrated here: they can take a solution and divide it neatly into two problems." -Wendell Berry

Jackson Bradley

pollinator

Posts: 608

Location: Zone 8A

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posted 3 months ago

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I say hard prune/topping because I am not sure which term is correct as I have heard people interchange them when describing the crepe myrtle pruning.

"The genius of American farm experts is very well demonstrated here: they can take a solution and divide it neatly into two problems." -Wendell Berry

Judith Browning

Posts: 9890

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3043

posted 3 months ago

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We see them pruned all sorts of ways here, including those Josh mentions....it's a really common landscape plant in the south.

They are very resilient so if how you prune doesn't work try another in a few years.

My favorite is chosing a very few of the trunks to grow larger, cut out all but a few, eventually just 3-5 so that they develope large gnarly trunks...then top those so that lots of new branches grow out the top and there will be a nice dome of flowers.

We had that look for a few years and then a big freeze froze things and they all grew back from the ground in a nice full bush shape...it's the easiest to maintain.

We have maybe six we 'play' with pruning and some fence line ones from bird droppings that are just starting to bloom.

My favorite is a deep red....too many pink ones.

an added thought ...didn't judson carroll just have something about crepe myrtle and it's medicinal properties? It was a video so I couldn't watch it.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Joylynn Hardesty

master pollinator

Posts: 5266

Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee

2230

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posted 3 months ago

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Ooooh! Judson's YouTube on crepe myrtles. I missed that one

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series

Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 18161

Location: USDA Zone 8a

4624

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posted 3 months ago

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I loved my crepe myrtles that I left behind after various moves.

I would suggest making it a bush rather than a tree.

I love it as a bush.

Top it off at the height you prefer then encourage the sucker as shown in the photo above by Josh.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

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