Greenman,

You have to consider the spread as well as the height. Assuming proper pruning is done, a crape myrtle that reaches 20' in height is going to have a mature crown spread of at least 15'. The large crape myrtles are definitely more tree-like than shrub-like.

We had a 15' tall crape myrtle in our front yard in Fort Worth with a crown that spread out about 12' and even more than that in a wet year when it had plenty of moisture. I have no idea what variety it was as it was already there when we bought the house.

I use the website of the Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney as my main crape myrtle reference site because of longtime Texas horticulturalist/gardening guru Neil Sperry's affiliation with the group. (I have listened to and read Neil's advice for almost 30 years and, if Neil Sperry says something about gardening, you can take it to the bank because he's seldom, if ever, wrong.) So, I went to that website to see what they said about Muskogee, found it and linked it below. They recommend 25' spacing in order for Muskogee to reach its full potential. I'm not saying you have to plant yours that far apart, but understand that closer planting will crowd the trees' crowns.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Planting Muskogee Crape Myrtle

That is a nice link, Dawn. I am afraid that I break the crape myrtle rules. I have 15 of them and cut them the way that it pleases me. Since I have a large rose garden, it is uncomfortable to bob your head up and down looking at crape myrtles. To me they look better pruned. To say that pruning hurts them doesn't make sense to me since they grow like weeds.

I keep my base canes to three or four. If you leave it up to the crape myrtle, you could have 25 and it would still form new ones. Each spring I cut the crape myrtles to about 4 1/2 feet, and I clip out the new growth from the base. As the plant grows, I keep the center clean so that I can prevent powdery mildew. They look pretty for me.

I don't know how you can adjust the height other than the way I do it. My next door neighbor has a crape myrtle that is reaching the top of their 2 story house. When a base gets too big, we cut it to the ground and let other canes develop.

Keep in mind that as you cut them, new sprouts will come out all over that area of your yard. They will grow into new trees or can be transplanted.

I guess I would keep them about 15 - 20 feet apart.

Sammy

I hope this helps, and that I haven't just rambled.

Sammy,

On that website, I believe they're referring to topping, which is really overdone in commercial landscapes in Texas and is commonly referred to as 'crape murder' by folks who don't like the look of severely topped crape myrtles.

I'd never argue with anyone's right to prune their own shrubs and trees as they see fit and I do my share of pruning my current shrubs, but I do understand the 'crape murder' viewpoint with regard to commercial plantings in Texas...like those around shopping centers, restaurants and office buildings. The landscape maintenance companies prune the poor things back to one or two or three trunks severely topped and when they bloom some of the poor things just look bizarre--big, fluffy flower heads on trunks with relatively little foliage. It can give almost a bonsai look to the plants and often the plants bend over towards the ground because the trunks can't support the big fluffy flowerheads...and that causes the crape myrtles to be pruned back even harder because they're obstructing sidewalks. If they'd just chosen the right size plant for those commercial plantings, they wouldn't be spending nearly as much time cutting them back.

With the crape myrtles in your yard, I can understand why you prune them to maintain them at a certain height so they don't interfere with your enjoyment of all your roses. I always thought I'd plant crape myrtles here, and yet we've been here 11 years and I haven't planted a single one. One reason is that I don't want to plant anything that needs a lot of pruning, and the likely sites where I could put them are places where I'd have to go with naturally smaller ones or do a lot of pruning. You'd laugh at us...every single year we say "we need to plant some crape myrtles" and then we don't do it. I guess we either need to plant some, or just stop saying it. I love them when they're in bloom, but hate the pruning.

I always pruned my crape myrtle back to just a few main trunks too back in Texas, or the monster would have taken over the entire front yard and also would have intruded into the next door neighbor's yard. I did sometimes dig up a sucker and transplant it elsewhere or give it away to someone who wanted one. I didn't do much other pruning, except to remove dead flowerheads when I could reach them. I also pruned up side shoots that came out at angles that interfered with our ability to walk in the yard, mow around it, etc. and that, of course, encouraged even more upright growth.

I don't see nearly as much 'crape murder' occuring in southern OK as I see in north central Texas where it is epidemic in commercial plantings and I think that one thing they're trying to say on the website is to pick a crape myrtle that's the right size for the space available so you don't have to do excessive amounts of pruning.

It can be really hard for homeowners to buy crape myrtles that are the right size if they don't do their research up front, because often crape myrtle plant tags don't always clearly state the mature size of the variety. I've noticed that in some stores, the tags only say something like 'lavender crape myrtle' or 'pink crape myrtle' and don't even give a variety name so you don't even know the mature height of what you're buying.

The battle between those who like to prune their crape myrtles back hard and those think such pruning is 'crape murder' is pretty fierce in some areas. Personally, I think everyone should do what makes them happy in their own landscape!

Dawn

Thanks everyone for the good tips and interesting discussion. I also see "crape murder" a lot in OKC commercial areas, and my aunt does that to hers, but like Sammy, she does it b/c otehrwise they get too big for what she wants them for. In my case, I want them tall and full to provide a privacy screen b/c the 2nd story window of my neighbor's house overlooks our backyard. I'll do some more research on the spacing, but it look slike I'll err on the side of more rather than less space between them.