New dwarf crepe myrtle tree

Katie0317

Katie0317

Chumono
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9B
Went to a bonsai class the weekend before Christmas and was shopping during the breaks. I picked up a beautiful hackberry and carried it 50 feet to ask the teacher a question. I barely made it. The tree felt heavier than me. I realized I didn't want a tree that would be so difficult to move. My husband said I shouldn't worry about it, that he'd move it for me but I knew. I don't want trees that I can't easily move myself. The same thing happened with a beautiful winged elm but I put it down before I went anywhere with it. It was hard to pass on these spectacular trees but I know myself and I don't want to have to ask for help moving a tree around.

After the class I kept going back to a dwarf crape myrtle that had been talking to me throughout the day. It has a beautiful trunk and the branches were unlike any of the others. Most dwarf crape myrtles with multiple trunks have a slingshot shape. Everyone that I saw were like that. I couldn't help but see the slingshot before I saw anything else. Neither good nor bad but not something I want to work with. The standard crape myrtle bonsai can get huge! Massive trunks and really beautiful. Someone had brought one to class and it was stunning but he used a wagon to get it from his car to the class and as I've already shared...I don't want any huge trees.

I decided to get the dwarf crape myrtle and I've not done anything with it yet. I can't decide which side I like best...they're both good but I think this is the side I'll end up using. Lots of nice branches to work with.

Does anyone on BN have a dwarf CM they're working on? Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks for sharing.
creoe myrtle.jpg
 
Great purchase! Show/tell your thoughts on which way you're "leaning" with it. Whatever you cut off will propagate easily, trunks and roots, if your interested in having more. Go heavy on the root pruning your first round, I'm not sure you can kill them, especially in your climate. Of course if you bought it at a bonsai shop it may have already had the roots sorted, fingers crossed.

Good luck!
 
My husband has built shelving on a wall on a side of our pool and is now adding single shelves for individual trees so the shelving is a work in progress. When I've had time over the holidays I go out and sit by the pool and look at the trees from a distance. It changes my outlook when I look at them from different points of view. Distance really helps me see things. So far that's all I've done. Look. It's funny but it really does look good from both sides. I've used a small block of wood to tip it forward a bit and that's what I've established so far. A point of view. Deciding which the front should be and that it should be tilted forward a bit. I like the primary branching and am still uncertain what I want to do moving forward. I don't want to remove any of the main branches but I want to wire the one on the left side and give it some movement and a few other smaller ones. There's a lot of fine twigging and I'm not sure what I should do in the winter months. I may wait until spring to do much. It will go in a bonsai pot in spring and I may workshop the tree.

The bonsai nursery where it came from grows all it's own trees. They are only one of only two bonsai nurseries in Florida who don't import from oversees. The other one is a small nursery called Dragon Tree.

I bought this tree at the end of my last class and didn't get to talk with the instructor about it. I knew it was a nice tree but I'm not sure how much pruning I should do this time of year. Any ideas on that? I thought I should wait until spring but if anyone has ideas on what I should do in the winter months I'd be interested in hearing.
 
A couple of questions... Are you doing your classes at D and L? Why only one picture of the tree?
In any case. Based on the one picture, congrats... I like it.
 
Here's my slingshot. Just a regular crepe, but that comment made me laugh.
 

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Yes Dana, we go to D&L. Is there something else you feel you need to see? That's the entire tree, I cropped it on my phone so as not to show the branch of another tree. And thank you.

Looks like a nice healthy tree Sr8madness. Most of the standards I saw did not have a multi-trunk so yours is different in that sense but yeah, all the dwarfs but the one I got had slingshot branches. I think it's true of crape myrtles that they have a sling shot type of branch structure so it's no accident and completely normal. We have a crape myrtle tree and that's how all the branches are.

The dwarf crapes have a very different trunk texture too. The standards peel when they get older and it's a beautiful thing. Even though it peels it's very smooth and has a reddish color on it. Really pretty and they get massive.
 
Last edited:
Katie0317 said:
I'm not going to take it back that hard Arnold but thanks for sharing your ideas.
Click to expand...
LOL I was going to take it back harder :) Decide on your main trunk line... and then remove everything else back to the trunk. Then when the tree pops buds everywhere, make sure you wire the new growth before it gets twiggy.

Before:
crepe.jpg

One year later:
crepe2.jpg
 
The picture you're showing me looks like a standard crape, not a dwarf. The dwarf I showed has already been cut down several times before it was put out at the nursery. The trunk is bigger than it looks. You're going for a bigger tree. A dwarf wouldn't grow that big. The dwarf trunks are all very smooth and don't look like the photo you're showing.
 
Hack Yeah! said:
Those first 3 pics were all from the same day in March 7
Click to expand...
That might be a bit to early for me in IL. One of mine didn't show any signs of life until June last year.
 
@Carol 83 I'd guess you're correct about delaying in your zone or protect it well after the work until after frost

@Katie0317 , the pic of tree in leaf, it's about 12" tall
 
Hack Yeah! I didn't think to ask how tall it was but I was wondering if you can tell me the size of the pot it's in? Thanks!

Do you know what color the flowers on it are yet?
 
I'm not sure if the size of the pot, I'll need to measure it, the flowers should be pink, I've not let it flower yet due to repeated cutbacks after 4-6 leaf pairs. Pic from today20211228_173220.jpg
 
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