Crape myrtles taking FOREVER to bloom.

Hi Y'all, I moved to this house a year ago and the three crape myrtles that were planted along the driveway only got a few blooms on them very late last summer. I assumed it was because they had been terribly neglected like the rest of the yard, but this year they are just now getting a few buds on them, again, later than every one else around. They also leafed out later than most in the area. (With the exception of my neighbor, who asked me last week "wonder why our CM aren't blooming, everyone else's are!". I have found a few dozen Japanese beetles, and have seen some damage but not a lot. Could it be soil or crappy initial planting or something? Will blooming plant food help? I really like CM's, and have planted three other babies, and have found seedlings volunteered that I wish to relocate as well. I had planned to plant a large purple one at the entrance of my driveway when it cools down a little, but if I can't get them to bloom their "100 days", I think I might look for a different tree.

I have some I planted last year that don't even have any buds on them at all. I guess they need to be a little older. All of them around my town are blooming.

a few more

Different cultivars have different blooming times. The older varieties don't bloom as long as the newer ones. Some of the most popular ones like Natchez, Muskogee, Acoma, and Tuscarora have long blooming periods. As far as soil is concerned, they seem thrive in all soil types here. You could check for powdery mildew caused by aphids, but I don't know if that would affect the blooming or not.

It could be they were pruned wrong. they bloom on new wood, don't they? You should prune them in spring.
I pinched a little tip off of a crepe mrytle at the mall and it rooted. I am so proud of it. LOL
The one I have is a bush type and this one is a tree type. I love the smooth bark of some of them.
The Japanese beetles do a lot of damage also.
They root so easily and bloom when very small also. I have had some bloom when they were only a few inches tall.

You might just have a late bloomer. The older varieties don't bloom as much as the new "hybrids", either. It would not hurt to fertilize them in the spring next year as they are heavy eaters. I have 60 on my property and only 4 of them are in full bloom right now--all of the same variety--so, go figure. I have the watermelon red that grows very tall, not the spreading kind.

I think Windy may be on to something--I had some at my old house which were small and I wanted them to grow bigger so didn't prune them at all and I didn't get any blooms. But down the street, one of my neighbors had a crape myrtle meatball which was sheared to shape every year and it had an amazing number of blooms on it (although the meatball shape still made it look stupid!)

LOL! Meatball, never seen that. I have seen people shear a bush type into a tree shape with one stem and then the branches flop over like a weeping bush. Kind of strange rather than pretty, though.
You know, they have a bunch of them at the local KFC and while I waited for my husband to get the food, I watched birds just devour the little seeds. I would never have thought they would be interested in that sort of seed.

Yes, this is the first (and only!) crape myrtle meatball I've ever seen. I saw it first in the spring when it didn't have any flowers and couldn't figure out what kind of plant it was, then to my surprise it bloomed and turned out to be a crape!

That is how the white ones in the second picture I posted were done. They were cut off about 3ft above ground level and then they come up and weep over. Some people refer to it as 'crape murder', it's a matter of personal taste I guess. I only prune off the seed heads on mine in the fall because I just don't like the look of the seeds throughout the winter. However with the big ones that would be almost impossible to do.

I never prune my Crape Myrtles and they seem to bloom just fine. Then again, all of mine are newer cultivars. Mostly ones released by the National Arboretum. Then again, my biggest, most floriferous Crape Myrtle was one of those just rooted 2" sticks I got from the infamous Michigan bulb company for something like $2. Anyways, mine are just now starting to bloom up here in zone 6 Kansas. I was amazed that when I was in Dallas in mid May the Crape Myrtles were not only blooming(not so surprising), but many appeared to be past peak(the surprising part)! I don't recall them blooming so early before in Dallas. It looked like they had begun blooming in early April or so, according to people I asked.

My bush is covered with buds about to open. The tree one has a ways to go.
Mine is medium pink and I really like it. I wouldn't mind a red one though.

Well, I had questions about the pruning myself. My neighbor, nice guy that he is, pruned mine when he pruned his. (His daughter used to live in the house, so he is used to taking care of the yard somewhat, I guess.) I thought the pruning job was a little overkill but he was kind to do it for me while I was at work. I did find some powdery mildew in addition to the stinkin' beetles, so I may have a multitude of issues to deal with.

The babies I planted aren't blooming yet either, but I can't remember what the cultivar is, althought I do remember they are supposed to be a true red. Thanks for all the help!!

Here are some "Natchez" crape myrtles. They were planted at the same time and get the same irrigation, however the one on the left is full of blooms and the one on the right has hardly any.

One is all dressed up!
Beautiful foliage on both though.
I have one branch blooming on mine now, so it won't be long and the whole thing will be in bloom. It happens so fast. It was really pretty last year and has a bunch more buds on it now.