Crape myrtles are among the many most loved and common flowering trees you can easily find on peoples’ compounds. They are generally low-maintenance small trees that can be grown to provide shade, for their ornamentals, or to make hedges. But what happens if you don’t prune crepe myrtles?
In summer, they showcase their beauty mostly with white, red, pink, and lavender blossoms.
That said, pruning is one of the basic care activities, and if you have planted crape myrtle, you need to know whether or not and when to prune crape myrtle.
Basically, you want to do the right thing to help your tree grow healthy. This article will cover more about pruning crape myrtle.
What happens if you don’t prune crape Myrtles
Pruning crape myrtle is a good way to keep it is shape. However, doing it repetitively every season can endanger the trees. Timing is very key when it comes to pruning these great landscaping trees. Otherwise, you may damage the whole tree and be left with an unpleasant tree trunk.
On the other hand, failing to prune crape myrtle can bring forth some great effects that might hinder the expected beauty of the tree. Here are some of the effects of continuously failing to prune crape myrtle.
- It will appear bush: Failing to prune crape myrtle over a long time will make it appear bush and unpresentable. Too many of its branches can disturb the appearance of other beautiful aspects of your home.
- Slow growth: Crape myrtle tends to grow slowly when bushy. Pruning helps space the plant, ensuring that every leaf gets adequate sunlight and produces food for the tree to grow. When it is a bush, not all the leaves will be producing food, but all of them will require nutrients. This leads to the slow growth of the trees.
- Fewer flowers: When you fail to prune crape myrtle, the old branches will produce flowers and reach a point where they can no longer produce more. It is the young branches that will produce more flowers. These young branches sprout out easily and strongly after pruning. Therefore, failing to prune crape myrtle will lead to less flower production.
Should you prune a crape myrtle: Reasons for pruning
It is okay to prune crape myrtle but not so frequently. Continuous pruning can be dangerous to the plants’ existence. How you prune the trees also determines if they will generate many flowers in the next season or not. Therefore make sure you have a goal for pruning and prune correctly.
Here are reasons for pruning crape myrtles:
- Pruning to make the tree safe by removing the damaged, weak branches or lower limbs that can distract visibility or clearance of pedestrians or vehicles.
- To improve structure by altering the overall appearance when the tree is dormant. This is the most likely time to prune because the branches are visible, and you can easily make cuts.
- Prune when several branches are crossing or rubbing against each other.
- Prune to remove dead, damaged, or diseased branches.
- Prune to create adequate air spaces by removing those branches that are growing inwards.
What happens if you don’t prune crepe myrtles: Conclusion
Pruning crape myrtle can be good or bad for your tree’s survival, beauty, and growth rate, depending on how you do it. If you do not like to see the trees growing too bushy, then pruning is the best way to control their sizes. Consider the right timing to do pruning and do it correctly, using the right tools.
Related Article: Crepe Myrtle fertilizer