Texas Gardening: How not to trim a crape myrtle, 0 by texasflora_com

texasflora_com wrote:
This is just my opinion on one of most overplanted trees/shrubs in Texas. There are nice Texas natives that could easily replace them but that's another subject. Every winter, I see all those crape myrtles on their way to developing a nice small tree shape, then someone comes along and butchers them by chopping the tops off. If I'm going to trim them at all, it will only be side branches to train them to a nice, upright shape and to trim the volunteers that come up along the base to keep the number of trunks limited to the desired number. Butchering them is akin to how some people top their trees. They develop what I call the "club foot" look, which I find very ugly. Wherever you make a cut, a dozen shoots will fan out, ruining it forever. I've seen many crape myrtles that were never trimmed at all except for the base growth and they developed into very nice trees and never failed to bloom profusely. Crapes always bloom on new growth and whether you trim them or not, they'll put out plenty of new growth every year if they get enough water and maybe even some feeding.