When to prune a crepe myrtle?

Mid January, prune back all branches with diameter smaller than your finger. You can also reduce the number of main trunks to get it to look more treelike.

I also prune back any suckers that sprout from the base of the tree.
 
[MrMyke709] Heresy! Don't prune them, it shortens the life of the tree and leads to disease. [MrMyke709]

The hornfans resident horticulturist highly recommends against pruning them.
 
If you feel like you must prune crepe myrtles, do it when the trees are dormant. Remember, crepe myrtles make blooms only on new growth.
 
You can prune them in the dead of Winter, just don't prune anything larger than a pencil.
I hate crepe myrtle butchery.
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Look at the photos on this forum for an example of worst case.
Crepe Murder

If you look along the Lavaca Street wall of the Governor's Mansion, notice how tall and beautiful the crepe myrtles are...I pruned those beauties for 11 years. In mid-Summer they are stunning.
 
They are supposed to bloom stronger if you lightly prune the spent blooms after the first round of flowers. This is not the same thing as scalping them during the winter. I am going to try some of this light pruning this weekend and see if it makes a difference.
 
I have also heard that you can lighlty prune after blooming to maintain shape, but that significant pruning only in the winter if at all.
 
WooHorn, that is a common method to increase blooming, we call it "deadheading".
I used to take hours deadheading huge beds of pansies, but never tried it on crepe myrtles.
 
myke

Those forums are great!
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We have a zillion Crepe Myrtles in our yard in Orlando and I have been doing the severe pruining bit because the missus wants it. I am going to show her this gardenweb thread and suggest that we leave our crepes alone. Less work for me
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as the things grow 20' shoots when I trim them and then I have the same 20' of shoots to dispose of the next winter, it makes a huge pile of cut brush.
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I'll tell her the crepes are like her plumerias, if I got near one of those with pruning shears she would kill me.
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I wonder what I need to do to get the ones I have been cutting to grow into normal looking trees.

Should I cut the knob topped trunks back to the ground?
 
Pruning back CM's actually decreases the hormone in the plant that helps with blooms.

I don't touch my CM's now and although they take longer to bloom, the blooms last much longer through the summer time.

Pretty tree....pretty tree.
 
Just let 'em grow, MrP.
My neighbors own a greenhouse, their plumerias are simply amazing....one fragrance is called "Pina Colada"...yum.
 
I have one right up against my front porch that is about to knock the gutters off. At some point I am either going to have to rebuild the porch around it or trim it pretty severly.
 
myke,

We have about a dozen plumerias growing in pots around the pool. The missus has had a white one for 20 something years growing in a pot that we brought from Texas. There is a wholesale nursery about 2 miles from our house and we were in there driving around looking for stuff to put into the yard and lo and behold there was a vertible forest of plumeria's growing in 1 and 5 gallon pots, we asked the price and they were rediculously cheap and we went home with about a dozen including one that has pinkish blooms that smell like peaches.

Last summer the missus got brave and we put her 20 year old baby in the ground and it went nuts putting out blooms. This winter we had a windstorm that knocked a lot of the plumerias around the pool over and broke off about a dozen limbs which got piled up and left alone until May when I grabbed them and jammed them into the ground in the front yard and now after they have been in the ground about 6 weeks they are putting on leaves and bloomstalks.

I don't know what we are going to do when we move back to Texas. We are going to have to rent a truck just for the plumerias.

and I will let the crepes grow, no more pruning, fortunately they are not up by the house.
 
Non-Crepe Myrtle Pruning Plumeria Propogating Longhorn Fans..........(and one of 'em likes to fish)................damn............whodathunkit.......its nice to know I'm not the only one around here with a little culture.

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Mine have just started blooming in the last week to 10 days. The cooler May weather we had set them back.

Anyone interested in planting Crape Myrtles? I bought 5 (in 5 gallon buckets) at Home depot yesterday for $8.88 each. Great price. It's a little late to plant, but they should be OK with plenty of water, plant food, and root stimulator.
 
What about pruning to remove that white web-looking stuff? Should I be spraying it with something instead of pruning it?
 
CMs are prone to mold, which a good fungicide will take care of. Sounds like you may have web worms. The best way to remove them is to prune the branch(es) with the web. To prevent this, spray with dormant oil when the trees are dormant. Doh.
 
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