![\"Winter](\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_4297-225x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Winter damaged crape myrtle<\/p><\/div>\n
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Extremely cold winters\u00a0of 2013-14 and 2014-15 have damaged many cultivars of crape myrtles (Lagerstroemia x indica<\/i>). Don\u2019t assume that new crape myrtles are hardy; many are rated hardy only to zone 7. Several of the U.S. National Arboretum cultivars are hardy in zone 6. Gardeners living\u00a0in the Mid-Atlantic or the lower Midwest states, where crape myrtles are iffy, frequently start over by cutting them back near the ground in spring and fertilizing.<\/p>\n
Is your crape myrtle dead? First, determine if the tree (shrub) is alive? Nick the bark with your fingernail or a knife to determine if the wood is still green (living). Use a chain saw, pruning saw or loppers to cut the trunk(s) close to the ground. Within a few weeks green shoots\u00a0will begin\u00a0sprouting\u00a0around the base.\u00a0Choose 3 – 5 well-spaced shoots to become the new main trunk(s) and cut off the rest. Large specimens\u00a0can sucker back and even bloom in\u00a0late summer and the early days of autumn.<\/p>\n
Fertilize every 6 –\u00a08 weeks with a high-nitrogen fertilizer until mid-August and no more through the end of the year. Maintain 2 – 3 inches of mulch and keep soil and mulch away from the shrub\/tree base.\u00a0Irrigate crape myrtles bi-monthly in the\u00a0absence of rainfall.<\/p>\n
When replanting, set crape myrtles in the ground shallow and never deep in the planting hole. Stop the practice of hat-racking, commonly called \u201ccrape murder\u201d, as it places a tree under stress and more susceptible to winter freeze damage.\u00a0Do not\u00a0prune crape myrtles in the winter months\u00a0(early March in most areas).<\/p>\n
Finally, select exceptionally cold-hardy cultivars, such as \u2018Natchez\u2019 (tree form, white blooms), \u2018Hopi\u2019 (shrub, medium pink), \u2018Acoma\u2019 (shrub, white).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Extremely cold winters\u00a0of 2013-14 and 2014-15 have damaged many cultivars of crape myrtles (Lagerstroemia x indica). Don\u2019t assume that new crape myrtles are hardy; many are rated hardy only to zone 7. Several of the U.S. National Arboretum cultivars are hardy in zone 6. Gardeners living\u00a0in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,398,440,914,806,665,843,601,630,706,646,7,113,455,162],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7705"}],"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=7705"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7709,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7705\/revisions\/7709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Crape](\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_4302.jpg\")
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