Can't help you here. I had two crape myrtles that were the centerpiece of my bed in the front of the house die over the winter. One sent up 3 suckers from the base, the other is completely dead. Like a dummy, I planted two dynamite crape myrtles in their place at the wife's insistence.

Were they healthy when they entered dormancy? Mine got powdery mildew pretty bad just before leaf drop and we know what happened to those. I know we have been in a drought for a year and I believe you also have been?

Crape myrtles are hardy in our zone, though. My parents live about 30 minutes from my place and they have literally dozens of them. Some trimmed up every year, and others left to grow naturally. They have never lost a single one in about 15 years.

huh, my wife picked out a zone 7 Dynamite at a local box store and we planted it. Every year for the last four it has suffered some die back but has gotten consistently larger. When I prune out the dead it even looks pretty darned good. A nice late summer flowering shrubby fella.

One thing one my mine is Crepe's leaf out awful late here. So while the maples and even most oaks and walnuts are showing activity I cant count ol Dynamite out yet.

By my account the tree was in excellant health when it went into dormancy. I watered it thoroughly on warm days all winter. I know they leaf late, but the branches snap with no problem and have no green in them at all. I am getting suckers from the base so I know I can replant it somewhere else and start from scratch which is one good thing! I just need something that will stay large for that area. Thanks for answers so far.

That is exactly what happened to mine. When I pruned mine even two months ago, I had green on areas I pruned. Now, everything is brown and snaps with little effort.

Buying a larger tree will make no difference on survival. Establishment of the plant itself will. However, when I dug up my dead ones, they both had roots extending about 7-8 feet and had only been in the ground less than 1 year.

We get lots of snow every winter and we have beautiful crapes here. The presence of snow has little to do with it. It's the c-c-c-cold temperatures and wind.

A minimum temperature for a zone 7 winter is around 0 degrees. I think you may have had an especially brutal winter in OK this last winter (set records in fact) and perhaps your temps had gotten to well below 0? If that's the case, that is why your crape myrtle died down to the ground. That and it was newly planted.

I'd replant a large one as soon as you can. Keep it well watered and mulched going into winter and pray for a milder winter!