Crepe Myrtle Ponderings

Crepe Myrtle is an uncommon species here. I have been able to source a few cuttings last spring, which now have done my the favor of rooting, and this spring, waking up.

Now I do not know where to go. I am not sure how well they hold over winter, how fast they bulk up, nor how they heal cutmarks.

So I am on the road. The train is moving. But I do not know how to navigate.
Anybody experience with these?

Propagation was a breeze..


and happy enough waking up:

Congrats, I love the species. I own three established ones. I found they ramify and those branches thicken rather quickly. My first arrived in 2022...and it's turned unti a really nice tree. I absolutely love the canopy on it. Especially when it spins on the turntable. It's lovely...a few wire to directional guide. But mostly clip n grow.


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They do thicken up pretty quickly in the ground here: usually the bigger the leaves, the faster they grow. They send lots of suckers, so keep them cut back if you want single-trunk trees. They tend to grow straight trunks, so add movement early, or grow them like trident maples with chop & grow techniques. They do heal over wounds but will also die back under wound sites at times, and can develop bulbous callusing at cuts. I’m not sure why or how to affect one outcome over another. Branches do tend to die back a little, and new growth replaces old directly from the trunk. This can be frustrating, so it might be best to style it in a broom or vase-like style so you’re not counting on individual primary branches to carry the design.

Depending on your climate, they could probably make it through winters in the ground if your ground doesn’t freeze. Otherwise, you might consider growing it in a flat on the ground and allowing the roots to escape while the trunk thickens up, and move it to protection for the coldest part of your winter. They do not thicken much in a pot.

Flowers develop at the end of new growth, and can be prolific, but you have to balance ramification with a flower show, challenging to have the best of both. Lighter flowers bloom earlier, and they progress throughout the summer. Our Natchez Whites are bigger, striking bark, white with flowers starting in May. The deep red and purple ones with smaller leaves bloom later in July-September.

We have had crape Myrtlesin our yard over the years, and I only have one that I am growing for bonsai. It’s been in and out of the ground over several moves. I’ve never been very happy with how it’s developing, but it is a volunteer from a deep purple variety from a park in MS so I’m keeping it going, and maybe one day it will be ready for a pot.

Brian Van Fleet said:

Branches do tend to die back a little, and new growth replaces old directly from the trunk.

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A member of my club who lives up here in Maryland is able to prevent dieback by providing frost-free winter protection. He does not allow his trees to flower, favoring ramification over color. Twig dieback doesn't seem to hurt the trees, which grow quickly in spite of the dieback and produce prolific flowers starting in mid to late June in my climate. It just affects ramification.

They are common landscape trees here in NJ... 6-7b.

@Brian Van Fleet nailed the assessment IMO.

Similar experiences to what he listed. I’ve tried several and love how prolific they grow and ramify. They want to heal wounds quickly and have such lovely bark. Never got to a good flowering state because as he said, the flowers produce at the end of long shoots. I was focused on ramification.

Problem is, I felt I was starting over every season as soon as many important branches would die back to the trunk over winter. I tried over wintering outside and inside, mulched in and not. Same issues every season. Decided to give up on the species here in my climate.

Others I’ve seen have excellent experiences with them. I wish I had better luck cause I love the look of the species.

Congrats on the crepes, they are in my opinion, interesting trees and underutilized for bonsai. I seen a few here that I really like. Mine did well under snow and ice, and had very minimal die back. They do grow fast, and take hard cut backs nicely. But I think once they are in refinement (I know, long way to go...) if you cut back hard it will create knobs that will look off on a bonsai.

What others have said has been my experience as well. I have a few here in 7b and they seem pretty hardy. I have them mulched in over winter and they backbud well after a hard cut. No weird die back on my end (yet). Nice display of flowers later in the season.

They do not heal big cuts well, but you can create interesting uro features. As you found they propagate easily from cuttings and air layers. There are dwarf and semi-dwarf varieties that flower closer to the trunk. They are slow growers, but I've got a few and am propagating those.

Maiden69 said:

... if you cut back hard it will create knobs that will look off on a bonsai.

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Easy to avoid it.

Gabler said:

Easy to avoid it.

Crepe Murder Is The South’s Worst Gardening Crime

Every year, hundreds of crepe myrtles throughout the South fall victim to this heinous crime, turned into gnarled, knobby stumps. Here’s how you can put a stop to it.

www.southernliving.com

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Ah yes, the coppicing of trees. I see it a lot here with fruit trees. Instead of looking for natural lines, people do a profile-prune. Furtunately bonsai is different!

Main takeaway is.. THey grow well, fatten up well, but be wary when pruning, and branches may randomly die-back (Guessing like arakawa and birch do?). Flowers only come late-season and one needs to allow lots of growth, ruining the tree. (The latter is not an issue, as I love the BARK, rather than the flower; THe flowers are oo large to be pretty on a bonsai?)

Here’s my shohin. It’s a dwarf variety with pink flowers, started in 2020 from nursery stock

CM are tricky! Beautiful, vigorous but can undercut all your plans in branching sometimes, and get very brittle.

I got the “triple trunk” one late winter with another CM. It’s a “pokemoke” and has cute little pink flowers with yellow. They were discounted as the nursery said they were dead. He was right on one, but luckily this one recovered. I got it mainly for the base- it has a little pancake. So far I removed one sucker that was allowed to thicken and will likely remove the branch on the left, leaving one main trunk. The pruned branch is healing slowly.

I’ve had the other for a few years and it seems to deal with winter fine when mulched in (sorry for the bad pic)I chopped the top last year and it definitely doesn’t heal anything like a maple.

The cut on the pokemoke is starting to roll over, albeit slowly. The cut on the other higher up is a bit ugly and I don’t really see anything rolling, even with a considerable sacrifice

Here is one that I have, very easy to grow and very hardy here in So Cal. This is after repotting last spring.

Given that crepe myrtle thrives here in the long, humid, almost unbearable heat of the Southeast US, my guess would be that in Europe the problem with weather wouldn't be winter hardiness but summer that is too cool. We had six weeks of "feels like" over 100 F and crepe myrtle bloomed in every yard and parking lot throughout my area. It reliably self propagates in those conditions and blooms in a couple of years. Just a thought to consider...

Teunis-Jan Klein had this amazing specimen at Deshima. It's now at Bonsai Plaza. I've been looking for some cuttings for ages, and the garden centers don't have them either. Bonsai Plaza has some starter shohin material but it's a bit much for my budget. It seems like it takes them a long time to get that characteristic bark. Do you know what color flowers yours will make?

This one is a recent addition at the museum in dc. It has progressed in bulking branches up very quickly. It’s “Natchez” which was initially developed at the National arboretum. (Which is run by the dept of agricultures’s agricultural research service)

Be careful in your zone. While most modern hybrids are hardy down to zone 6 a lot are zone 7 plants. Plus hardiness may just mean root hardy so check with the person you got the cuttings for the specific variety of the mother plant. I have been growing Natchez in my yard for about 15 years without any dieback even when temps dropped to 10 F, but I can also remember back around 1974 it got so cold outside Washington DC that all the crepe myrtles at George Mason University were killed.

RozendaalArts said:

Teunis-Jan Klein had this amazing specimen at Deshima. It's now at Bonsai Plaza. I've been looking for some cuttings for ages, and the garden centers don't have them either. Bonsai Plaza has some starter shohin material but it's a bit much for my budget. It seems like it takes them a long time to get that characteristic bark. Do you know what color flowers yours will make?

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never knew TJ had one! Miss him .

I have no idea, will find out maybe next summer!