Would any of these crape myrtles make good Bonsai material?

Mellos

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I found a couple crape myrtles at my family’s nursery, one of our workers cut them back to nubs late last winter. Would either of these work as Bonsai material?
 

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TN_Jim

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I believe having a dwarf for this genus given the smaller size trunks, small leaves especially would be why dwarf as Robert mentioned is important.

What is the name of the exact species since you’re around the nursery? You will be able to tell soon enough anyway...they don’t mind summer work.

Question is, if you got them now, could you chop to that lowest branch right now?

The double trunk I’d pass on either way.
 
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RobertB

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I should have mentioned that i have several crepes myself. They grow pretty good. The dwarfs seam to be better suited for bonsai. Honestly, I find that tridents put on more growth and bulk do the crepes in a given year. O, they do heal over nicely and fast!

My large ones were pissing me off last year because they kept trying to bloom and not grow.
 

TN_Jim

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I have two dwarf crepes I successfully bare rooted and chopped back in early summer last year.

They exploded with buds and growth and that I noticed also seemed to come to a halt when they began putting on blooms -nonstop flowering week after week.

This was attractive, but towards the end of the season I started removing all flowers and fruiting bodies. This year I plan to continue this removal from day 1.

Also, related to the related to the trunk chopping in winter from the original post -is this a good idea??

I hope so because these two I keep in my garage, I stare at them every day, and haste just got the better of me.

I chopped them back to where they really need to be (retaining 3-4 branches with buds) and applied wire with very minimal bends/movement. Also, I cleaned cuts very well and applied liberal cut paste.

Was this work just way too early!!? The garage is attached to the house and I have yet to see anything freeze in there. Should @Mellos heed this as what not to do?

Thanks
 

RobertB

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This is when crepes are chopped down here. Most of the landscape trees are chopped after a few beers during the first football games of the year in the fall.
 

Mellos

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Thanks for the feedback. Not sure about the species, I’ll have to check but I’m sure neither are dwarfs.
 

Mellos

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I believe having a dwarf for this genus given the smaller size trunks, small leaves especially would be why dwarf as Robert mentioned is important.

What is the name of the exact species since you’re around the nursery? You will be able to tell soon enough anyway...they don’t mind summer work.

Question is, if you got them now, could you chop to that lowest branch right now?

The double trunk I’d pass on either way.

They are still dormant, would it be ok to chop that lowest branch right now? When I do decide to cut the lowest branch should I leave a nub, then cut with knob cutter later?
 

TN_Jim

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They are still dormant, would it be ok to chop that lowest branch right now? When I do decide to cut the lowest branch should I leave a nub, then cut with knob cutter later?

Rather than doing what I did a few days ago, the best is likely to wait till buds begin to swell when it’s really starting to awaken. The two I've chopped and made big cuts on before, I cut them flush and sealed them with my daughters school glue. I had no die-back or any related issue, but I do not like the look of this hardened glue. I've also seen others here (BN) make flush cuts on them. It doesn't seem like you need to leave a knob as you do like with a Mugo....however, I'm pretty new to this... When I did this work the other day I did the same, then went in with a sharp knife smoothing out and contouring the cutting area. I saw a video from a so-Cal club meeting where the speaker said to make cuts flush due to the way they heal. Supposedly they don't need a deep groove that will fill in with the new cambium growth. I have taken this approach. Because of this, I would be weary of how you come at those cuts, especially if your cutters are concave -even if they are, you can go back and clean them up. Because of the previous glue aesthetic, I used cut paste on the wounds instead.
It seems I've read that you can have die-back on cuts. Maybe it was @just.wing.it that had an approach to this?? Not sure.

If yours ends up super healthy, I would consider bare rooting it this summer, or even spring perhaps -get it in a much better growing medium.
All that said, just because this has been my approach (rookie disclaimer ahead) that does not mean it is the best approach.
Thanks
 

Bonsai Nut

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Because crapes have largish leaves, they work better as larger scale bonsai. These trees all look pretty small - given the general availability of crape myrtles in landscape gardening nurseries for not very much $$$. I personally wouldn't mess with one unless I could find one with a 4" trunk at the nebari at the minimum. Otherwise you will be spending a ton of time pruning and managing cut scars, and end up with a small tree regardless.

They will bud back - everywhere - and heal cut scars amazingly fast. The biggest challenge is keeping the foliage small while getting it to bloom. You can keep the foliage small by defoliation - but then it will never bloom (crapes only bloom on new growth). If you let it run so you can get blooms, you will get leggy growth with long internodes, and large leaves.
 

Mellos

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@Bonsai Nut I appreciate your insight, sounds like I should pass on these trees.
 

MrBeto

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Because crapes have largish leaves, they work better as larger scale bonsai. These trees all look pretty small - given the general availability of crape myrtles in landscape gardening nurseries for not very much $$$. I personally wouldn't mess with one unless I could find one with a 4" trunk at the nebari at the minimum. Otherwise you will be spending a ton of time pruning and managing cut scars, and end up with a small tree regardless.

They will bud back - everywhere - and heal cut scars amazingly fast. The biggest challenge is keeping the foliage small while getting it to bloom. You can keep the foliage small by defoliation - but then it will never bloom (crapes only bloom on new growth). If you let it run so you can get blooms, you will get leggy growth with long internodes, and large leaves.
 

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MrBeto

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This is a variety called Sarah’s favorite. I wanted to keep them branches shorter when blooming. A friend of mine told me to cut back a month before flowering ( august ) ?.
 

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MrBeto

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And this is another crepe I collected in my backyard. I have tons of them. It’s virtually impossible to kill them, don’t matter what you do to them.
 

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