Home Depot Crape Myrtle

[JefeW]

It was all I could find out here for a long time. I find them incredibly uninteresting too so maybe I notice them too much. I love the white varieties. Great flowers and always good bark color with age.

 

[just.wing.it]

Haha! Dang!, does look like my purple heffer!

 

[theta]

I had these little brown things crawling on my tree last fall, and I see them again all over. If I peel away some of the bark, there hiding under there and also near the base. Any ideas what they are?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n6ph9x53rrnkk3a/VID_20200221_131248.mp4?dl=0

 

[Arlithrien]

Crape myrtles can have really interesting nebari for bonsai. I too bought one from HD. One of varieties with black leaves and red flowers after seeing this beautiful specimen planted in someone's lawn. Unfortunately it got hit hard by myrtle aphids shortly after I transplanted into a pond basket of DE, dropped all its leaves, and hasn't recovered.

 

[TN_Jim]

Crape myrtles can have really interesting nebari for bonsai. I too bought one from HD. One of varieties with black leaves and red flowers after seeing this beautiful specimen planted in someone's lawn. Unfortunately it got hit hard by myrtle aphids shortly after I transplanted into a pond basket of DE, dropped all its leaves, and hasn't recovered.

myrtle aphids, ain’t exist

 

[Arlithrien]

myrtle aphids, ain’t exist

Tinocallis kahawaluokalani - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[leatherback]

Can't believe I found this at HD, but there it was - just waiting for me to take it home.

amazing tree!
Any updates?

I pulled a hand full of seeds fro gardens in Washington last fall. I have never really seen them on this side of the pond. How fast do they grow when grown from seed? Worth my time?

 

[TN_Jim]

Tinocallis kahawaluokalani - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

that’s what’s up!
thankful

 

[theta]

@Arlithrien that's what mine looked like in the fall. They kept coming back even after spraying them multiple times. Had the black sooty stuff all over the leaves and branches as well. Hopefully I can keep them away this year and get the trees health back up.

@leatherback thanks,it's doing good, besides the aphid issue and some dieback that was more than I expected. I'll try to get some more recent pictures of it soon.

 

[Tulsabonsigh]

I have some crepe myrtle I’m about to dig up to throw away that have trunks the size of two liter bottles. Think I should bonsai them?

 

[Maloghurst]

I have some crepe myrtle I’m about to dig up to throw away that have trunks the size of two liter bottles. Think I should bonsai them?

Pics? Lot of crepe Myrtle are made this way from landscape trees.

 

[leatherback]

I have some crepe myrtle I’m about to dig up to throw away that have trunks the size of two liter bottles. Think I should bonsai them?

Neh. Trim the roots. Wrap with wet cloth. Wrap with plastic. Put in box. Write my address on the boxes. Drop it at the postoffice.
I will make bonsai out of them!

 

[Tulsabonsigh]

They are just huge. All three of these gotta go

 

[theta]

This one's starting to wake up for the season!


Lost some branches over the winter, which really sucks one of them was a kind of important one on the left side, but whatever.

 

[theta]

So I decided to repot it into a better looking container today. Probably wasn't the ideal time, due to it already leafing out, but it was the only open spot I had in my schedule to work on my trees.

I can't believe how fine and hairy the roots are, compared to when I first repotted it in 2018. This is my first time doing a second repot of the same tree, so it's really cool to see how much of a difference soil components make. I went pretty hard again, trying to cut and carve away as much as I could directly under the trunk.



I'm hoping it'll pull through, even though it wasn't the right time and I did a lot. But crape myrtles are really tough, so we'll see!

 

[Marty626]

I can't believe how fine and hairy the roots are, compared to when I first repotted it in 2018.



In your experience when would you recommend doing a hard cut back on a crape myrtle? I have one that I repotted about a month ago and is full of new growth, but there’s some straight branches that are just really bugging me and I just wanna bring in everything closer to the trunk, but I’m too hesitant to cut and kill it especially since I just repotted it not that long ago. I would appreciate any info

 

[theta]

I can't believe how fine and hairy the roots are, compared to when I first repotted it in 2018.



In your experience when would you recommend doing a hard cut back on a crape myrtle? I have one that I repotted about a month ago and is full of new growth, but there’s some straight branches that are just really bugging me and I just wanna bring in everything closer to the trunk, but I’m too hesitant to cut and kill it especially since I just repotted it not that long ago. I would appreciate any info

I'm no expert by any means, but you can't go wrong if you do the hard cut back in really early spring, before the buds break open. This spring I was experimenting and pruned off the growing tips, leaving 2 leaf pairs on the branchs. It responded well by backbudding and opening up some buds further back on the branches.

 

[bluesky]

Lovely trunk, and natural looking nebari. Looks great!
I have a large CM in my garden, that's decided then, I must air layer it and get a bonsai going. They're not common here in Spain

 

[canoeguide]

This is looking great! I wish I could grow crape myrtle in my zone (both outdoors in the landscape and as bonsai).

I can't believe how fine and hairy the roots are, compared to when I first repotted it in 2018. This is my first time doing a second repot of the same tree, so it's really cool to see how much of a difference soil components make.

I have yet to do a second repot and I can't wait to see this. The roots on your crape are looking fantastic!

 

[AaronThomas]

Jealous