Crape myrtle question

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Author Message   Abigailc1973  My Weather Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 07:28 am EST :    I just planted this crape myrtle whip over the winter. Within the last couple weeks these two stems popped up and they're positioned quite a ways from the main "trunk". My question is do you think I either planted the tree too far down in the soil or could these be "suckers" or "water spouts" that I've heard so much about. Thanks for any help. Abigailc1973 - florida, Zone "9"   Treelover  My Favorite Photo My Garden Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 08:08 am EST :    Thats a Crepe Myrtle? Looks like something in the pea family Treelover - County Durham,UK, Zone "8/9"   Stephie  Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 08:44 am EST :    That's what they look like...they actually belong to the Loostrife family. Stephie   Abigailc1973  My Weather Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 07:44 pm EST :    Out of all the tree whips I planted this past winter, this is the only crape myrtle, so I have nothing to compare it to. None of the other trees had these "shoots" grow out from the base so I'm not sure if this is a general characteristic for crape myrtle or not. This didn't happen to my dogwoods or maples. They're just filling out nicely on top and the dogwoods now are getting leaves along the trunks as well. Abigailc1973 - florida, Zone "9"   Valia  Supporting Member Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 07:47 pm EST :    Yours doesn't look much like the shrub I planted last fall that was labeled Crape Myrtle. Is this another kind of crape myrtle or do I have a different plant entirely? Wooooh, I had a hard time taking that picture. There's a nasty, hot wind blowing everything around out there. Sucks the breath right out of you. Valia - UT (winter) WA (summer), Zone "8 and 5"   Stephie  Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 09:14 am EST :    Crape Myrtle suckers. Stephie   Cindym  Supporting Member My Favorite Photo My Weather Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 11:05 am EST :    Anne, lots of CM varieties. Some grow as trees ... some shrubs. I have a few in the yard. The leaves on my Natchez are large like the ones in Abigail's pic. The others, more like yours. http://www.clemson.edu/crepemyrtle/ Cindym - Louisiana, Zone "8b"   Abigailc1973  My Weather Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 12:16 pm EST :    So, Stephie, if it's suckers I need to remove them. I've read that they should be torn off as opposed to cutting,but I don't want to damage the tree. Is there a chance of rooting the suckers? Abigailc1973 - florida, Zone "9"   Abigailc1973  My Weather Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 12:22 pm EST :    Valia,I like the color of the leaves on yours, are so much prettier. Mine is from Arbor Day and was just common crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) but yours is very pretty. Mine are supposed to have pink flowers but I've seen crape myrtle down here with white, lavender and even red. What will yours have? Abigailc1973 - florida, Zone "9"   Valia  Supporting Member Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 02:15 pm EST :    Thanks, Cindy. What a thorough website. I found my tree there -- I looked back at the receipt from the nursery. It's "Country Red". I was looking for a tree that would flower in mid to late summer. Someone recommended a crape myrtle, but I was not familiar with them, never having lived in a climate like this before. I've read so many horror stories about labels being changed on plants that Abigail's picture had me in a bit of a panic. Valia - UT (winter) WA (summer), Zone "8 and 5"   Valia  Supporting Member Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 02:45 pm EST :    Thanks, Abigail. There's a lovely picture of "Country Red" on the website Cindy recommended. It's an exciting color. http://www.clemson.edu/crepemyrtle/countryredphotos.htm And it looks like the tree will grow taller than I thought, which is actually very good. Valia - UT (winter) WA (summer), Zone "8 and 5"   Stephie  Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 08:18 am EST :    Usually with suckering, tearing off is best because cutting produces more suckering. I keep mowing my aspen suckers and more come up the next year, so almost like mowing a lawn each spring but they don't re-sucker until next year. Stephie   Abigailc1973  My Weather Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 11:39 am EST :    Thanks Stephie! Abigailc1973 - florida, Zone "9"   John_ny  Supporting Member My Weather My Garden Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 01:34 pm EST :    Almost all that I have seen are grown multi-stemmed. As I mentioned in my reply to the other crape myrtle thread here, I saw one with 50 or more stems that was absolutely beautiful. Here are the stems on a couple of mine. John_ny - NY, Zone "USDA Zone 7 Sunset Zone 34"   Abigailc1973  My Weather Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 02:35 pm EST :    Wow, John, how long have you been growing yours? Most I've seen down here have been planted as ornamentals among the new housing developments and shopping centers and I don't think they're very old and are single trunked. Yours looks great. They seem to be using a lot of crape myrtles and magnolias now, which are some of my favorite southern trees. Abigailc1973 - florida, Zone "9"   Cindym  Supporting Member My Favorite Photo My Weather Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 06:12 pm EST :    Abigail, most around here are multi-trunked ... 3 to 5 is common. And now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen a single trunk CM. John, that tree must have been something! As I drove around today I noticed that a lot of CM are starting to bloom. Cindym - Louisiana, Zone "8b"   Abigailc1973  My Weather Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 08:42 pm EST :    Yeah, Cindym, from a little more digging on the net, I've found that the single trunk specimens I've seen at these shopping centers have been trained, tortured and pruned to look like that. I'm thinking the more natural and prettier looking ones such as John's is the way to go. Much more "free flowing". One Texas site called some of the pruning done on these poor things "crape murder". I like the flowers, they remind me of lilacs from up north. Abigailc1973 - florida, Zone "9"   John_ny  Supporting Member My Weather My Garden Posted on Friday, June 13, 2008 - 02:47 pm EST :    Mine are several years old. We can grow lilacs here, and also Crapes. I think we are pretty much at the northern limit for the CMs. They grow pretty fast. A couple of the seed companies offer seed of a dwarf variety that they say can bloom in the first year. (and they do, if you get the seeds planted early enough) Also, they can be rooted quite easily form cuttings. I'll ask the people that own the huge one if I can take a picture, when it's in bloom this summer. John_ny - NY, Zone "USDA Zone 7 Sunset Zone 34"

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