Thank you, Dawn. In the back of our house is a ravine that spills into Haikey Creek, and then the Arkansas River. I wonder if there is not a direct access from the Mississippi River to us. (over about 10 years)

I took pictures to our Rose Society meeting yesterday, and asked others about their crape myrtles. I seem to be alone with this problem. But others may not have gotten out, and begun pruning yet. I didn't really focus on the problem until I saw the damage from the leaves, and small branches. One of our Master Gardeners told me to go ahead and cut the trunk to the ground if I wanted to. It would come back. My plan has been - even before talking to him -to plant new varieties while I give these a chance. I need to get out, and use the heavy rake to remove all weeds and winter yuck from a large circle around each tree, cut all sprouts and small growths around the tree, and once again spray with horticulture oil.

I hope there are not too many others who have this problem. I need to be sure that the scales do not touch my roses. It is interesting that my ladybugs are black. I wonder if it is a stage I have not seen in the past, or a new type of ladybug.

Thanks for your help. It is too cold to work outside, but I think I will try it anyway.

Sammy

Sammy, I worked outside today until raindrops began falling on my head, and then I came indoors since cold temperatures plus raindrops made being out there less than pleasant.

If scale is not widespread in your area yet, maybe you can defeat it. It sure is worth a try. One thing we've learned from watching it in Texas is that it ebbs and flows and some years are worse than others. It is possible that 2016 was your worst case scenario year, and maybe your CMs will never have that sort of year again. Or, at least, maybe not often. While CMBS has been found on some plants that are not CMs, I have not yet heard of it hitting roses. I certainly hope this specific form of scale does not discover it has a taste for roses.

I have ladybugs in all colors some years---many shades of red and orange, some in yellow, green or black, and a few that are pink. Some have a lot of spots, some have few, some have none. The lady bug family is huge and very diverse with over 5000 species worldwide and I think we tend to forget they come in a wide range of colors and with different spot patterns.

I hope you're able to work outside today. I was doing so well until some rain sprinkles ruined it. We sure need the rain, though heavy rain might not hit us until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Dawn

neam oil, light dormant oil, try vitex tress, large viburnums trimmed into tree form, ,Amur maple cultivars, desert willows cultivars, fringe tree cultivars, smoketree cultivars

Thanks Edward. I am going to look them up right now.

Sammy, I grow Vitex. I love it, so much so that I put in three! To me it is similar to crape mrytles in that it does require pruning. Also like CM, you can cut it to the ground and it will pop back up. They are gorgeous in bloom. I added a desert willow and smoke tree last year. Small ones. I am hoping they survived.

Thanks, Lisa. I am going to look them up right now.

Sammy

I don't cut back my vitex tree and it gets huge for a plant that is considered either a large shrub or small tree, so if you decide to grow it, Sammy, I am going to guess, based on my knowledge of the height at which you keep your CMs, you'll probably be happier with it if you cut it back hard every winter. The one I have is about 12-15' tall and just as wide as it is tall. I never cut it back. The common desert willow gets pretty tall,and I'd say mine is about 20' tall at the age of about 15 years, but there are some named cultivars available from some growers that have been bred for smaller size and also for some flowers in different shades from the standard one.

The pruning on my vitex is more about thinning the branches to keep them from crossing each other. I didn't do that very well for my first one and I am having to rectify that now. I'm trying to do better with my other two!

Oh, I guess I ought to do that sort of pruning, but I never get around to it. This particular tree isn't too bad about that, but I think I did prune it a lot in its first few years to keep the crossed branches from developing. That's likely why I don't have to deal with it now. We have a neighbor who is about 95 years old and she has a vitex that must be 30 or 40 years old. She's had it forever. It is about 30-40' tall and incredibly beautiful when in bloom.

I am looking at an end of the season of about 8-10 ft. I need to be careful when I purchase a tree because I do not want to provide much care for it. Thanks for the information, Dawn and Lisa.

cut them all at this time of year to about 3 feet tall makes a wonderful shrub and it blooms all year into fall

Ok LISA......went and looked up vitex. NOW, I need to have one lol. I'd never even heard of them. I've seen them before but didn't know their "official" name. From the pictures I found, I think I'd want to keep it as a low bush about 4' tall. I have a perfect spot for one too. Now the only thing I think I'd have to worry about it snakes hiding beneath it. I really need to figure a way to keep them in the creek area. Our bird dogs kept them at bay I think, but they aren't as scared of Lilo, lol.

I didn't get a chance to prune my CMs. I want them as a lower bush as well. I don't like them to get so tall and out of hand that I can't reach them to prune. Do you think it'd be ok to go ahead and prune the tops of them off without causing any damage?

I am hoping once I remove the white rock from my bed where the CMs are planted, they will thrive much better. They are somewhat scraggly and lanky. My son asked me how he could earn some extra money. Guess what he'll be doing?! I think I just hired a junior gardener, lol.

LOL....we do best at enabling!! I prefer to allow all my bushes grow to their full size...mostly because I can't manage to keep up with my other gardening duties! I will take a pic of my three soon and post it. They don't have any leaves yet, but the structure of my front tree is really pretty even without leaves and flowers.

I am beside myself about this crape myrtle blight! I'd never even heard of them until I moved here 3 years ago, and was enchanted. I fell promptly in love with crepe myrtles. Redbuds and crepe myrtles were my favorite new plants (and verbena) about living here. I hope and pray the scale doesn't reach us here.

The scale has migrated, more or less, from Texas up through Oklahoma sometime in the last decade though most heavily in just the last couple of years, and I'm sure it will hit all of Oklahoma at some point. However, our crape myrtles at our place are less than a half-mile from the Red River/TX to our west and scale hasn't found them yet. I think much depends on how many crape myrtles you have near you, and there's none between us and the river so that may help keep the scale from finding us for a while. Being in an area where the homes are widely scattered on rural property may help as well since the scale has to travel further to go from one crape myrtle planting to another one.

In an urban to suburban area where crape myrtles are used in great abundance, that large abundance of crape myrtles, often planted in pretty close proximity to one another, makes it easier for the scale to spread more quickly. CMS may exist in my area and maybe has just missed us so far, but I haven't noticed it on any crape myrtles here in our city or county or even in the adjacent counties.

This sort of issue is pretty common when a certain type of plant is used heavily, and crape myrtles have been planted heavily in this region for all my life. Over the last few years, I've seen lots and lots of places, like shopping centers for example, where the landscaper designers have moved away from such heavy use of crape myrtles and instead have begun planting tons and tons of both desert willows (which are misnamed, as they are not desert plants and are not in the willow family either) and chase tree (vitex agnus castus). This has been particularly true since the Drought of 2011, and I think the heavy usage of these two trees has occurred because of their drought tolerance. I am seeing them used in combination with many native grasses and with red yucca, which have the same sort of great drought tolerance. Initially I was thrilled to see such tough, native plants showing up everywhere, but then it quickly became apparent that they were going to be very heavily used as well. Any time that a plant comes into such heavy usage and becomes widespread in a region, it seems like it becomes a pest magnet. I'm hoping that doesn't happen with all the desert willows and vitexes now popping up in plenty of landscaping situations where crape myrtles used to be used. One factor that will help the vitexes and desert willows is that they are natives, so we are more likely to have native beneficial insects that prey on any native pests that attack these trees.

One thing that is hurting the crape myrtles so much is that the CMS pest is an Asian import that lacks native predators so far in this country. However, lots of folks have had success with releasing lady bugs to eat the scale, so maybe all those Asian lady bugs that have pretty much taken over in the USA will prey heavily on the imported Crape Myrtle Scale.