Hi, Folks.
Last year, I planted six crape myrtles. They did fine, and bloomed. They survived the winter, and leafed out in the spring at the same time as all the others in town.
However, they're still just leafy. I cruised the neighborhood, and every single other crape myrtle is in partial or full blossom. Mine are just green and healthy.
Any ideas? Do I need to give them some fertilizer high in phosophorus? Something else?
Crape Myrtle Problem
Younger crepes are slower to bloom. Probably give you some color this month....next year they will kick into high gear...remeber crepes love lots of water.
"eyes"
And different varities bloom at different times. You may be right about the water requirement eyes, but mine are only watered when it rains and they are good performers.
I should add that these crapes are nearly-mature trees. I purchased them at 12-15 feet heights about 14 months ago, and they've added another foot each since then. I'm guessing they were 3-4 years old, perhaps more, at the time of planting. They were containerized, not B&B.
The varieties are Natchez, Dynamite, and Dallas Red.
This message was edited Jul 1, 2008 9:25 PM
The only other thing I can add is the two Natchez I bought that were also mature and potted have grown much more slowly than my other Natchez and an unknown variety I have that were bought as young plants. In fact, the younger plants have outperformend by far (growth wise) and are bigger than the older plants. With regards to blooming, they are all the same.
dave
Jul 02, 2008
My Dynamites are only just now starting to bloom. Give it another couple weeks and see if you finally got blooms (I bet you will)
The larger the tree when planted, the longer it takes to get established.
Indeed, ceejaytown. I wrote a tip for the Seeds of Change newsletter for Texas Gardener (for which I got a nifty T-shirt) that says: If the tree can't be carried to it's planting site in one hand, it's too big.