Curious, where are you located and how long have you had the plants? Of course I should have asked when did you plant them? I'm not an expert, just curious, I planted a dwarf by accident and I did it in July and it's blooming furiously. I'll try to look up what it is, the bloo color is pink.

They have been planted a couple of years. There are no blooms on the normal growth.

Penny

Hi Penney, I believe mine is also a Chicsaw and I have it planated in full sun, is yours? I found an excellent web site that should answer all your questions. I wanted to plant full size in my back yard as screening plants when we moved in a new house this last summer and I found this an excellent answer. Copy and paste this if you can, I can't get this forum to let me copy it in below. Let me know if this helps you out ok. I could keep telling you, but I think it has to do with soil conditions etc. But, it's just beautful when it blooms, maybe you need to move it a little after you read up, don't give up on them!

http://pubs.caes.uga/edu/caespubs/pubcd/L331.htm

Also if you can't get in that way let me know, I surfed looked for info on crepe myrtles until I found this and it was under the University of Georgia College of Ag and Environmental Sciences Hey, crepe myrtles are the same no matter where they're grown.

Hope this helps, it did me. I put my dwarf I bought accidentally out front and went back to Lowes and bought another full size and put it out back. Good luck and please let me know if this answers your question. Leslie

Here's the corrected link, Leslie. Those forward slashes don't always cooperate. :)

Great site!

Brenda

That was very nice Brenda, thank you. Me and the computer don't get along very well. Thoughtful. Leslie

Thanks for the link to the article but it doesn't really answer my question of the witches broom. I'm going to cut it off and see what happens to the rest of the plant.

Penny

Penney, I'm stil out here. Is yours planted in full sun? What do you mean by witches broom my blooms are all over the plant. Have you tried some fertilizer on it? I don't know what zone you're in it's probably a little late in the year but if your zone is mild it may not matter. No it doesn't give alot of info about this particular crepe myrtle. It did say loack of sunlight and moisture are the common causes of poor growth and flowering. It says flowering is enjanced if plants are watered during dry periods that occur during the flowering season. I'm in the central valley south of Fresno and mine are still blooming furiously, what are yours doing? It says don't prune in early fall before the first frost. because pruning forces new growth and keeps the plant from going dormant. It does say that pruning to remove spent flower blossoms aver they fade will stimulate new growth and blossom flush in late summer.

So, if you cut off the bloom it should stimulate some more flowering. It says to fertilize in the spring. Don't give up on your plants, these are really pretty. Sorry I'm not an expert, I used to grow them when I lived here before but that was 14 years ago and I'm really rusty. I'm having some problems with mine but at least they're blooming. I'm hoping the cooler weather we're having will give mine a break. Good luck Penny. Leslie

I'm in Napa valley and have several crape myrtles spread around my yard. All are done blooming but maybe we have had more cool weather here. A witches broom is a wild growth that looks different than the regular growth. It grows upward while the rest of the plant is nice and compact. They are in beds that are watered weekly. They have had chicken fertlizer in the spring altho some of mine get nothing. I checked today and there are new buds on the chicksaw but only on the witch's broom section.

Penny

Hi Penney, check back in when you can don't give up on me, I'm going to investigate further for you. I have the time. I'm disabled and don't work. I'm busy with all kinds of stuff, but time I can carve out and don't mind. I love plants and like to help, guess that makes me weird. I just moved back to this town again and I'm honestly a little lonely so a little human contact is nice:) Let me see what I can find out for you since you gave me a little more info. Check back in when you can and I'll find out what I can for you. Ok?? Again mine are having problems and they're supposed to like to grow in clay and are blooming like crazy, but their leaves are doing weird things, so I'm needing to check for myself also. Leslie

Hi Penney, I picked up a little more info today. Best grown in average, medium wet, well drained soil in full sun. All my full crepe myrtles say they like clay, that's interesting, maybe that's what is wrong with them... Overly fertile soils tend to produce lush foliage growth at the expense of flowering with somewhat increased susceptibility to winter injury, however. Water roots deeply, particularly in dry spells but avoid wetting the foilage. I wet foilage, that may be my problem too. Prompt removal of faded inflorescences will extend the bloom period. Plant in a protected location and mulch in winter. So, do you have lush soil? I have extreme clay and total alkaline, that's why mine is blooming the leaves are yellowing and browning on the edges probably, I'm hoping winter and spring help me out, it used to when I had these planted in another new house years ago. So, I couldn't find anything else. It talks about in zones 5 and 6 treating these like butterfly bushes and cutting all stems back to several inches in the spring, toors will sprout new stems and flowers will appear on the new growth. This was on www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder I bet you've got better soil than I do! Maybe you can call a nursery and ask, tell them you bought it from them and you're frustrated and what should you do :) Works for me. Well, good luck, guess I've exhausted what the internet holds that I can find, I keep seeing the same sites. I tried for us both. The other site said to prune in late winter or early spring, so I'm going to try that also. Leslie

Hi Penny your witches broom on Crepe myrtle is a first for me. I would also prune it off. Chicken manure is so high in nitrgen I would never use it on crepe myrtle. Here I have about a dozen CM and do not fertilize, but do add compost when planting and as a mulch. Mine are all on drip irrigation. Al

I usually think of witch's broom as describing the sort of growth habit of a mistletoe infestation on trees, could it be this? Secondarily, you described the strange growth as being like a water sprout, or leggy new growth that extends well above the rest of the more compact habit of the shrub. This is more akin to the summer growth of fruit trees such as apples, or it may be due to the grafted root stock budding from below the base of the grafted plant, and overgrowing the grafted part of the the shrub.

I don't know if your dwarf Crepe Myrtle is a genetic dwarf, or was grafted, so if it is a water sprout from a below bud graft, it should be removed completely, or it will outcompete the grafted part of the plant.

This is a case where language can confuse, and a picture is worth a thousand words. In rereading your follow up posts further describing the leggy shoot, it does sound like this plant was grafted, and the root stock is more vigorous.

You are right. I realized this am I had described it incorrectly. It does however come from an upper branch and just grows upright with a couple of offshoots from that branch. I plan to remove it as it looks too much like regular crape myrtle leaf size. It is the only part with blooms right now however.

I think Chickasaw is a genetic dwarf developed by the National Arboretum in DC

Penny