Well, it’s about that time of year again.  Time for tree and shrub pruning for the yard and landscape around the house.  Well isn’t it too early you might say, but really it’s not.  Spring, believe it or not, is right around the corner and it is good to prune your trees and big shrubs in late winter or very early spring before it’s get to warm and you begin to damage the new life that is springing from your formerly dormant foliage.  I trimmed many of the trees last year as well as many of the shrubs, but one tree has always alluded my trimming until this year.  I have a big, beautiful Crape Myrtle tree in my front side yard that appears to be very old.  So last year I decided not to trim it.  To be honest, it is hard for me to trim shrubs and trees, even though I know it’s good for the plant, because I always feel like I’m amputating it’s limbs or submitting it to some ancient torture.  And all the while the poor plant never puts up a fight but willingly takes a hacking.  Ultimately it is good though because the tree produces better, more full, and newer limbs.  So with a crape myrtle that was running amuck, it was time to intervene.  I was going to do it more in the winter but it was way too cold so a few days ago we had some nice weather and it was perfect for trimming.

With the tools in hand, Laura and I made our way out to the tree with the ladder.  Little did I know that there were two very different opinions indwelling us that would make it hard to trim the tree.  I like trees, and like I said before, I always feel kind of bad trimming them even though it is vital.  Laura, on the other hand envisioned cutting it way down.  And when I mean way down I mean the kind of way down you see in a parking lot where a landscaper comes and hacks off all of the branches at the same height for the winter.  This method did not settle with me.  Turns out we needed to obtain some better knowledge about how to properly trim a crepe myrtle and avoid what I like to call “crape murder!” (when someone hacks off all of the branches at one height).  Fortunately, the Mississippi State University agricultural extension had some great videos on YouTube that really helped us out because, after all, this whole landscape up-keep thing is pretty new to me.

Armed with this new knowledge I was confident that I could trim this beast of a crape myrtle and avoid the ghastly sight of crape murder.  Really, the only supplies that you need to trim a big crepe myrtle is a small pruning shears, a large pruning shears, maybe a saw (either a pruning saw or a cross-cut saw, which is what I used), and a ladder.

Here’s the tree before the pruning

Now it is important to cut the branch close to the where it comes off of the trunk.  Typically this is described as just above the collar, which is a slight bulge near the base of the branch.  That way you are not cutting into the main trunk and potentially causing some serious problems.  You also want to prune the branches at about a 45 degree angle to the branch, not the ground.  So trim your branches near the collar and at an angle.  It is also important to know what kind of branches need to be trimmed.  I learned that you need to look for branches that are crossing others and rubbing together because this can cause a wound and critters can potentially get in there and really damage the tree or make it sick.  Yes, trees can get sick too.  Also you want to look for branches that go in the opposite direction of the main stem and cut back across the middle of the tree.  Pretty much, when you’re trimming a crape myrtle you want to think about taking out problem branches and trimming and shaping up the tree because this helps preserve the”tree” look and not a “naked-winter-limb” look that will appear like a Chia pet in the spring.

So by the end of the trimming experience, it looked really good and I was able to preserve the shape of this tree while still thinning out out quite a bit (evidenced if you look closely at the before and after pics).  I think it will grow nicely, and even though it doesn’t look like we took a lot limbs out, you can tell by the pile next to it that there was a lot to be trimmed.  But when you do it right and selectively you can take a lot out and it still looks great.  I can’t wait to see how it blooms in the summer!

Here’s some of the videos that helped me out a lot!