Arapaho Crape Myrtle

I live in zone 6 and my crape myrtle has no signs of life. It looks totally dormant, but when scraped at very bottom, there is green. It was planted last spring, very slight signs of growth were noticeable during last summer. Has anyone experience this, or, know what I can do?

All you can do is wait and be patient--either it'll come back or it won't but there's not really a lot you can do besides making sure it has adequate (but not too much) water, etc. You're in a borderline zone for them and I know this winter was tougher than usual in many areas so it may have been hit pretty hard. But since it's green underneath it's not completely dead and hopefully should sprout some new growth. Things that were badly damaged over the winter can take quite a while to put out new growth in the spring though so be patient with it. If there are branches that you're sure are dead you can trim those off.

Thanks for the reply. I thought I had seen something about pruning it, but wasn;t sure.

The Crape Myrtle is now listed for Zone 7 - not 6 and I'm in 6A - by the company that sold it to me. Do companies sell items and then have the right/privilege to change the growing zones for their trees? I never heard of zones changing - what protection is that for a consumer?

Companies certainly have the right to change information like that if newer information comes along that contradicts what they had listed originally. Why should they continue to list information that they now know is incorrect? That wouldn't make any sense at all. Most likely there were some initial field trials that indicated it would be hardy in zone 6, but as time has gone on it's proven to not be reliably hardy, so the company updated the hardiness with the more up to date knowledge. Given that they used to say it was OK for zone 6 and now they say it isn't, if your tree does die then I think it's worth calling them up and explaining that you bought it thinking it would be hardy and now their website says it isn't (and your plant died) and see if they'll offer you some sort of refund/exchange.

The other thing with crape myrtles in your zone is most winters the top growth will die back, but the roots will live and they'll send up new growth from the base every year. What this means for you is you'll never be able to have crape myrtle trees like people in warmer climates can, but if you don't mind a smaller size shrub you may still be able to grow them. Of course since you're in a borderline zone for them, a really tough winter might kill it but I definitely wouldn't give up yet (especially if there's still some green under the bark)