Question
I recently moved to a new house in North Carolina and discovered a Crape Myrtle in my yard. It only has one little cluster of blooms and the "faded" blooms from last year are still on the tree. Should I trim the remains of last years blooms to encourage it to bloom this year? If not, what should I do to ensure blooms for next year? Thank you for your time.

Answer
Crape myrtle flowers on new growth of the season, so you can prune plants any time during the late winter or early spring before growth begins without loss of flower buds. Avoid pruning in early fall before the first frost, because pruning forces new growth and keeps the plant from going dormant. Severe freezes can kill the plant if it is not fully dormant.


Pruning, however, is not essential for flowering. Some of the most spectacular floral displays can be seen on old, unpruned crape myrtle along roadsides. Flower clusters are usually smaller on unpruned crape myrtle, but the number of flower clusters is greater. Therefore, the overall floral impact of the plant is not reduced.

On some cultivars, pruning to remove spent flower blossoms after they fade will stimulate new growth and another blossom flush in late summer. A second bloom is sometimes difficult to force on cultivars that bloom after mid-July.

I would also recommend that the trees be fertilized. A complete general-purpose garden fertilizer -- such as 10-10-10 is ideal for crape myrtle. Use about 1 lb scattered around the tree and watered in good. I would fertilize now and again in a month and then next spring. The best time to fertilize is just before a rain. Otherwise, water in the fertilizer after application with irrigation.

Remove all suckers from the lower trunk. These take away the growth to the upper foliage and can reduce the flowering. Sucker sprouts can be pruned any time of the year.