Question
I live North East of Houston, and it has been a wet July.  My Crepe Murtles are covered with black!  I have sprayed them with a fungicide 4 times this summer and still the problem is there.  They are in different places all over the yard but all seem to have the same thing, even spreading to other plants on the ground below the bushes. Am I not spraying often enough?  It doesn't seem to be getting better.  No one else in town seems to have this problem with theirs.

Answer
Hi Diane:
Sounds like from your description that your shrubs may be suffering from a condition called "sooty mold". Crapemyrtles are notorious for this problem in my part of the world.
Take a look at the web address below for a bulletin that I have prepared on this condition- which is the result of an insect infestation, not a disease, so fungicides won't help. This bulletin is a pdf file, so you will need to have a free program on your computer called Adobe Reader to view this.

http://www.uaex.edu/Other_Areas/publications/PDF/FSA-7555.pdf

Let me know if you have any problems viewing.
Regards
Steve