I don't know but pul-lease tell them not to chop it off horizontally and destroy the beauty of the shrub. In our local paper in the gardening section, there was a mention of a man who refers to this method of pruning as "crepe murder." They need to be thinned out perhaps but not by chopping them straight across.

Hi Dorie! It was probably me but it was oleander, not crape myrtle. Don't worry Carletta, I know how to prune them, LOL. But I could also use some help on dormant spray question in this strange weather we are having. It was almost 70 here yesterday and viburnum are blooming, buddlea are leafing out and I am sure bugs are stirring everywhere! Last year I had already sprayed all my shrubs by now with dormant dilution but I worry that this year it's too warm and need to use the growth dilution rate. Help please? Many thanks.

Babs

RIGHT!!! Babs, don't let me forget about your oleanders when it get's closer to spring! Regarding the dormant oil, now is ideal! The upper limit of temperatures is in the 80s or 90s, depending upon the plant. You will be far ahead of the game if you go ahead and get in several treatments between now and summer.

OK, now I am confused, not unusual for me! Posted this question on the shrub forum as well and someone there said I am jumping the gun on the dormant spray this time of year. Wait until late winter/early spring. So, who is right? Also, no one has answered the question about dilution. I assume I use the dormant one of 5.5 T per gallon?

Babs

Babs, believe me, Dorie is right on this.
I don't see how you could be "jumping the gun" using dormant spray this time of year. This is the time of year to apply it. I think they were confused.

Robert, I sure could use help, for sure.
I have a number of single stem Natchez crepe myrtles that were put in 4 years ago when they were about 6 - 7 feet tall and about an inch and a half in diameter. They are now 10-12 feet tall and the calipher is approaching 4 inches.
I need good advice on how to prune these. Everything I've read indicates simply cutting off the flower tips, which would round off the top. When I had the pruned last year, they were pruned in a vase shape...kinda flat across the top, with limbs pointing downward cut back.
I sincerely appreciate any advice.
Thanks!

Leave them be. Deadheading flower heads is not even necessary (tho I do mine to induce 2nd and 3rd bloom cycles) If ever you were to see a pruned and an unpruned CM standing side-by-side, you'd never touch them with the pruners again. Deadheading means cutting ONLY the heads off, not parts of branches. Our HOA just paid someone to murder the ones at the entrance to our subdivision... I could KILL someone... they will never be the same again.

My rule of thumb: for winter pruning in February or March REMOVE NOTHING LARGER THAN A PENCIL. If you want to remove the spent heads, just clip the tips of those branches, but nothing larger than a pencil. When the tree gets too large to reach them, just leave 'em alone and don't be tempted to "whack" the top off. The exceptions to the pencil rule are the suckers that appear around the base of the main trunk (or trunks in multitrunk forms) which can get very large overnight. Also, if two branches are intertwining or are too close, take one out.

Agree with post just above....the biggest gardening crime in the South is the annual Crape Myrtle massacre. Whoever got people to start chopping the tops of their trees off should have the same done to their heads! Furthermore, a tree which has been treated this way looks totally AWFUL for the four or five months of the year when it has no leaves. On the otherhand, there is nothing more beautiful in winter than a NATURAL looking Crape Myrtle.

Amen, Mercury!!!!

I've seen a couple other posts regarding crape murder. I'm learning... I did it to my trees (from the north)after discussing with all my southern neighbors I thought were in the know. Is there Life after Crape Murder? I saw some posts where some folks mentioned just cutting the tree back to the ground and starting over and am trying to weigh this versus planting a new tree. Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks.