I would choose the 3 straightest trunks and cut the rest off.

Thanks, tlbean! Do you know ifI it's ok to do that now since they're newly planted, or should I wait to avoid transplant shock?

You could remove entire trunks now, without significantly adding to the potential for transplant shock. Avoiding pruning at planting is about quick establishment and not really about transplant shock. In a multi-trunk specimen, I'll often go ahead and remove unwanted trunks at planting. It also wouldn't hurt to wait until next year, if that makes you more comfortable.

Yes, remove them now!

Ok, great! Thank you both!

just leave it alone and see how it grows and prune next year when it's more established?

====>>> i absolutely NEVER PRUNE A RECENT PLANTING THE FIRST YEAR ... ever ... dont care what it is ...

but i would remove anything that i broke getting it planted ...

you seem to be a bit wrapped up in instant gratification ... on a plant that can live a couple decades ... instead of doing what might be best for the plant ... which is plant it.. and let it get established ...

can you get away with it.. apparently .... so do whatever you want ...

think of every leaf as a food making machine.. and consider that you are thinking about cutting what per cent off??? .. whats going to feed the tree for optimum root growth ...

beanie .... you are sounding a bit authoritative in this post.. for one who hasnt yet planted their first garden ... i hope when you finally get yours in.. you arent cutting off a third or half of every shrub you are planting ...

ken

"you seem to be a bit wrapped up in instant gratification ... on a plant that can live a couple decades ... instead of doing what might be best for the plant ... which is plant it.. and let it get established ..."

Whoa, Ken. I'm sorry if I came off the wrong way, but the reason I was asking the question was to make sure I'm doing the right thing for the plant. That's why I was asking about transplant shock :( I'm a newbie and don't want to mess anything up on my lovely new crape.

I do appreciate your advice, and it's hard to always tell through text, but your response came across a little presumptious and offensive. I apologize if I'm wrong.

Ken is wrong. It's a great idea to do the kind of pruning you're talking about. The younger, the better. I would have eliminated unwanted trunks before planting!

someone in michigan advising someone in texas about crape myrtle.............now what could go wrong there?????????

I am in Missouri where crepe crapes show me how tough their roots are even if the top dies to the snow every year.

Still I would not go super crazy RIGHT after planting. I mean it is going to be 90 degrees down there any day now, right?

What is the harm in pruning one stem a month? Let the plant get SOME return on all that foliage it just created.

Thanks, tornado. It should be getting warmer soon, but we've been getting nearly non stop rain for weeks. Definitely not complaining about that though! We need it. I think I'm going to err on the side of caution and just hold off on any pruning for a bit.

I have lost a few plants to pruning too soon. If it were me I would let the plant grow for at least a year before pruning any thing.

The first question you must answer yourself and no one else can make the decision, is what shape do you want. Do you want a single trunk tree or one of the graceful muti trunk bushes as Crape Myrtle grow into naturally.

If you want a single trunk, then maybe the one long leader should be encouraged.

Whatever you do, don't do it until the new planting is established in it new environment.

In areas where it get very hot in the summer like eastern Carolina, Texas and other parts of the south, you have to treat new plants differently than in the north where the temperatures do not get as high or last as long in the summer.

We recently lost a forsythia, after working with it for several seasons. When I was in Indiana, the forsythia was weed-like and nearly indestructible.

If this plant was lost after immediate (done at planting, right after planting, or today), it would absolutely NOT be because of the pruning we are discussing here. Maybe if the plant was right on the verge of death to start with, significant pruning might have an impact, but that's obviously not the situation we have here. As Rhizo said, two great times to eliminate the trunks would be before/during planting or during late-winter/early-spring (before bud break), but, it can certainly be safely done now too.