Mutant Crape Myrtle

Carol 83

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Last year this crape had uniformly sized leaves. This year, about half of the branches have crazy big leaves, almost the size of my landscape crape. Is this normal? Also, would it be Ok to trim those branches back, this late in the season? It has already flowered. crazy crape.jpgcrazy crape2.jpgcrazy crape3.jpg
 

namnhi

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I would say that is because it is healthy and do not have enough light. Just my thought. I see no issue healthwise. Maybe give it a bit more sun next year.
 

Carol 83

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I would say that is because it is healthy and do not have enough light. Just my thought. I see no issue healthwise. Maybe give it a bit more sun next year.
It gets pretty much full sun and the other 2 crapes I have sitting right beside it have uniform size leaves. But maybe I can set if farther out on the patio. How do you feel about cutting it back at this time?
 

Hack Yeah!

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I don't think it would hurt it to trim it back now. The landscape plants here get hard pruned in late winter.
 

Carol 83

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I don't think it would hurt it to trim it back now. The landscape plants here get hard pruned in late winter.
I'm just planning to trim back the ones with the crazy big leaves. I would try and take some cuttings, but the flowers are white.
 

Forsoothe!

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I can't see what you describe in your photos. But, if it does have two kinds of leaves (which is not unusual in JM) you have to cut off the wood of the big leaves or eventually the small leafed portion will be crowed out. We have some of these neat different varieties because some species have unstable DNA which is subject to spontaneous changes in DNA which is called "sporting" when a chimera begins to grow on a plant. A chimera is a part of a plant that has replicating DNA that is different from the original parts of the plant. The spontaneous DNA change can occur for a variety of reasons. It can be a broken link in the DNA, or a different way a linking one or more parts, or a missing, extra, new, or different segment due to chemical exposure, radiation, or natural weakness or instability in the DNA. Witches Brooms are Chimera. When one variety that is different from the ordinary variety sports foliage that looks like the ordinary, original variety it is often said to be "reverting" to the original. That is not so, it is sporting to a new variety that just co-incidentally looks like the original and its DNA would not match the original DNA.
 

penumbra

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It is just vigorously growing Carol. I don't think there is anything unusual about a CM doing this. Several of my young CM two and three year cuttings are doing this and several elms and other trees . Its been a good growing season. I don't think it is a sport.
Pruning wouldn't hurt but I also see no advantage this time of year. I would personally just wait until you see how it responds in the spring.
 

Carol 83

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Some cultivars have much bigger leaves than others, especially if derived from Lagerstroemia fauriei.
I get that, but some are small and some are really big. I guess I'm overthinking it. Just strange that it didn't do that last year.
 

Forsoothe!

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I get that, but some are small and some are really big. I guess I'm overthinking it. Just strange that it didn't do that last year.
Why aren't you pruning/tip pruning to control size.
 

penumbra

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You are overthinking it. I see it all the time on several of my CM. And some just do have larger leaves that they may not show early in the game.
 

Carol 83

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You are overthinking it. I see it all the time on several of my CM. And some just do have larger leaves that they may not show early in the game.
little leaf.jpgbig leaf.jpg
 

Carol 83

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I wanted to see it bloom. 😇 I won't care about that next year, the flowers are white. 😞
@Forsoothe! Don't know if you're sad it's white or that I didn't prune it. It came from @Zach Smith already pruned last year, so I wanted to see the flowers. No worries, I'll get to work on it next spring.
 

Forsoothe!

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I'm sad that it isn't going well for you. I'll offer some advice just in case you don't know this. All trees that bloom on the ends of foliage grown this year from the tips of last year's growth have the same fix, with a few exceptions: The resources stored in the roots and used by the by tree to expand buds is divided equally between the number of primary buds in spring, or summer, or whenever a particular tree blooms. The fewer buds, the larger the foliage. To reduce the foliage size you need more primary buds. You can force the tree to grow more primary buds by tip pruning in spring, or the 3rd week of June, or September 1st, or defoliating in the 3rd week of June, or defoliating in late August, or about 3 or these options each year depending upon the health of the tree. You won't get any flowers when you do this, but you will increase the number of buds by a large factor and after 3 years of doing some combination of this you will have lots of buds and smaller foliage on shorter petiole & rachis. As long as you deadhead and don't allow seeds to mature and continue to prune each pinnae back to 1 or 2 sets right after flowering, the condition will continue forever.😉
 

vp999

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I'm sad that it isn't going well for you. I'll offer some advice just in case you don't know this. All trees that bloom on the ends of foliage grown this year from the tips of last year's growth have the same fix, with a few exceptions: The resources stored in the roots and used by the by tree to expand buds is divided equally between the number of primary buds in spring, or summer, or whenever a particular tree blooms. The fewer buds, the larger the foliage. To reduce the foliage size you need more primary buds. You can force the tree to grow more primary buds by tip pruning in spring, or the 3rd week of June, or September 1st, or defoliating in the 3rd week of June, or defoliating in late August, or about 3 or these options each year depending upon the health of the tree. You won't get any flowers when you do this, but you will increase the number of buds by a large factor and after 3 years of doing some combination of this you will have lots of buds and smaller foliage on shorter petiole & rachis. As long as you deadhead and don't allow seeds to mature and continue to prune each pinnae back to 1 or 2 sets right after flowering, the condition will continue forever.😉
Thank you for this valuable info as I was just about to ask how to reduce foliage size of my Crape.
 

Davidlpf

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I don't see any stranger in that: if you let the branch grow untouch, the tree is well feeded and well watered, the leaf size tends to be as big as the species can be.

Look at this ulmus procera:


The leaves in the tips of the sacrifice branch are quite bigger that the ones that are in the lower branches; that have been pithched and defoliated a couple of times the past growing seasion.

In this another elm, growing(almost) freely in the ground, with all the sun possible all day long,(in Spain, in summer, there are a lot of sunny hours :cool:) the very top tip has as well the biggest leaves in the tree.


So, IMHO the stronger the branch are, the bigger the leaves, nothing to worry about.

If you want "reduce" the leave size, you can fold them in the middle, and cut with a sharp scissors. Take a look here click,click

Cheers
 
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Zach Smith

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Last year this crape had uniformly sized leaves. This year, about half of the branches have crazy big leaves, almost the size of my landscape crape. Is this normal? Also, would it be Ok to trim those branches back, this late in the season? It has already flowered. View attachment 397294View attachment 397295View attachment 397296
Needs pruning and pinching for leaf-size reduction, Carol. It's just a "feature" of crapes and many other species.
 

Cadillactaste

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I'll get after it, I just wanted to see it bloom this year. I was just relieved it made it through the winter here,
Assuming it was allowed to go dormant? Then if so...always a good feeling to see a tree wake for spring. Congrats for seeing that happen with your care.
 
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