Getting Crepe Myrtles to bloom

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rhiannonsstar Athens, United States Oct 22, 2023

I have 3 Crepe Myrtles that were planted back in the 80's. One has puryple blooms that are not particularly light or dark. Two have dark purple blooms. The first few years they bloomed pretty decently, although not fantastically. Then they gradually stopped blooming. For several years I've only gotten 2 or 3 blooms on the medium purple tree, and a few more on the dark purple trees. There are many Crepe Myrtles in my neighborhood, all blooming profusely. I'm trying to figure out how to get mine to bloom. I just did some reading on this and saw that the problem may be that I've never pruned them, so maybe all I need to do is prune them this winter. The medium purple one is going to require a tall ladder.

Are there other possibilities for this lack of blooms?

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Debbiegrows Sedona, United States Oct 25, 2023

Hi, Your crepe myrtle isn't blooming?
Could be lots of causes but you don't have to prune them. I usually just prune out any dead wood on mine and to stop any branches from rubbing against each other.
They bloom on new wood each year. Did you see plenty of new growth this year? How often do you fertilize them and what are you using? Way too much nitrogen will cause a lot of new growth with no blooms. And not enough phosphorous will stop it from blooming. Are you giving them plenty of water? Have you inspected them for bugs or fungus?
It would help if you gave us a little more info and if you could send us a picture of your trees so we can get an idea of the terrain.

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