Although native to eastern Asia, crape myrtles are indispensable in the Southern landscape. Its vibrantly colored flowers in shades of pink, purple, red and white from May to September virtually ...

This improperly pruned crape myrtle tree has undergone “crape murder,” which is when the entire crown of the crape myrtle tree is cut off. Courtesy of Leaf & Limb, a Raleigh-based tree care company ...

I enjoy living n a heavily wooded area; that's why I oppose over-pruning of any tree. Sure, we do need to prune trees if they are in a urban setting and they are a danger to power lines, but we have a ...

Left, the winged seeds of crape myrtle; and right, an American goldfinch feeding on crape myrtle seed. (Image courtesy Gary Graves) Each year from summer into fall, ornamental crape myrtle trees in ...

With all the rain over the past few months — we have already surpassed our annual average rainfall and are only halfway through the year — lots of plants are growing wild while others are suffering.

Too often crape myrtles are cut back to bare trunks in the belief this abuse will yield more flowers. In reality this type of severe pruning results in a shorter bloom time, delayed flowering, weaker ...

Somehow, the belief that crape myrtles should be brutally pruned by cutting off their tops persists, even though it's inaccurate. Crape murder is a term that has been coined to describe this severe ...

Question for Dan Gill: I have a nice crape myrtle tree that blooms well and looks healthy. The problem is that there are numerous shoots coming up from the bottom of the trunk. I prune them back ...

Here we go again. I see some folks are already hacking on their crape myrtles. The only pruning crape myrtles ever need (if at all) is thinning the trunks as they are developing to the desired ...

Now’s the time of year you’re most likely to see naked crape myrtle trees, the unfortunate consequence of improper wintertime pruning. The practice has even been given a not-so-affectionate nickname: ...