{"id":7032,"date":"2015-10-25T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2015-10-25T16:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=7032"},"modified":"2015-10-21T23:15:37","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T03:15:37","slug":"avoid-crape-myrtle-woes-in-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2015\/10\/25\/avoid-crape-myrtle-woes-in-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoid Crape Myrtle Woes In Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lagerstromia<\/a>

Lagerstromia faureii at UT Gardens in Knoxville, TN<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that in many areas with\u00a0cold winters (USDA hardiness zones 6-9),\u00a0hardy crape myrtle cultivars are now\u00a0available. In northern areas like eastern Maryland and northern VA, crape myrtles have been prospering for two decades and more. However, there is one rule regarding winter care — \u201cDon\u2019t Touch\u201d. Hold off all pruning of crape myrtles until March 1 or later.<\/p>\n

Removal of seed capsules\u00a0is ok, but not totally necessary unless you demand a litter free garden. All other pruning should wait until early spring. A common practice around shopping malls and public areas is “crape murder”; this drastic pruning should be outlawed. A landscaper lops back crape myrtles to 5-6 feet so that they don\u2019t block the view of store signage. This practice is not recommended as it greatly limits the plant\u2019s lifespan and\u00a0branch wood\u00a0hardiness.<\/p>\n

Landscapers committing crape murder during the traditional frigid months of January and February\u00a0 wind up killing the plant to the ground. Likely,\u00a0plants will suckered from the base and flowered the subsequent summer about a month or more later. Yes,\u00a0hardy crape myrtles are\u00a0 tough plants despite human error.<\/p>\n

If you must move\u00a0an established crape myrtle to another location, wait until early spring. Transplanting a crape myrtle should not be necessary as\u00a0replacement cost is low. It’s a lot easier to start over with a new shrub or tree form. Yes a new plant starts off smaller, but how quickly they size up.<\/p>\n

In northeastern cities such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington or Baltimore crape myrtles are rated as hardy perennials. Expect an occasional winter when they will dieback to the ground. Some of the hardiest cultivars were developed at the U.S. National Arboretum. If you want to start out with just 3 or 4 cultivars, ‘Natchez’ and \u2018Muskgoee\u2019 are among the hardiest tree and ‘Acoma’ and ‘Osage’ shrub types.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  It\u2019s no secret that in many areas with\u00a0cold winters (USDA hardiness zones 6-9),\u00a0hardy crape myrtle cultivars are now\u00a0available. In northern areas like eastern Maryland and northern VA, crape myrtles have been prospering for two decades and more. However, there is one rule regarding winter care — \u201cDon\u2019t Touch\u201d. Hold off all pruning of crape […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,657,747,749,440,914,665,843,1060,601,630,706,646,7,850,455,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7032"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8139,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7032\/revisions\/8139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}