Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: Crepe myrtle mystery, 1 by sparkway

sparkway wrote:
Hi I live in north NJ. I have two crepe myrtles. Both from Fast Growing Trees.com. They are several years old. They have been healthy a beautiful, however not this year. When they finally bloomed which is always late but worth the wait, each of my trees had one dead trunk. We had a terrible winter. Not sure if that's the cause. No other signs of disease. In the pic it's the trunk on the left. If I scratch at it it is still green should I give them time or cut the dead portion off? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated
Anthony