Leaves Falling Off a Crepe Myrtle Tree Early

RE: Leaves Falling Off a Crepe Myrtle Tree Early Post by Nancy749 (1) | (08/20/2006) Contact Dear LyndaGayle, I found your report on Crepe Myrtles very informative and quite helpful. Just one question...when you say: do not plant too near a house, just how near do you mean? I need to plant some sort of shade tree about 10 feet from our house and was considering this plant, but now I'm not so sure. RE: Leaves Falling Off a Crepe Myrtle Tree Early Post by lyndagayle62 (92) | (07/10/2006) Profile | Blog! | Contact Hi! I have about 11 mature (over ten yrs. old) CrepeMyrtles all over this large corner residential lot, and have learned that in N. TEXAS where the temp. is high in Summer, often humid, this is the most rewarding longest flowering plant of all times, at least for Texas. This is what I do: Choosing only good stock, about 4-5' tall, I plant them in rich soil, 1/3 peat-1/3 compost-1/3 sandy loam. I seldom water them, only about 1-2 times monthly, and less in the rainy seasons. Watch carefully for white mildew, CAREFULLY AND IMMEDIATELY removing(paper sacking) any leaves/stems/blossoms that show early signs of this, one of their few/only problems AND AN INDICATION THEY DON'T LIKE THEIR LOCATION, THAT THEY MAY BE OVERCROWDED OR NEAR TOO MUCH WATER OR OTHER INFECTED PLANTS. WASH HANDS CAREFULLY AFTER HANDLING BECAUSE EACH "SPORE" WILL REINFECT THE TREE. SEAL AND TOSS THE INFECTED SACKED LEAVES/STEMS/BUDS. I clip OFF every single dead stem, small to large, all season,especially any unwanted suckers off the base, letting the plants rest during the winter. I do not fertilize much at all, but about every third year I give them blooming food. I allow the leaves that fall from them to become their nitrogen for the following year UNLESS there is any powdery mildew on them. I prefer to keep each plant to either a single stalk like a standard tree, or to no more than 5-8 main stalks for the largest blooms, even though this takes longer to train. I have the healthiest trees in the whole city! My neighbor, however, likes the over-bushy look with lots of smaller blooms and which takes up a lot of ground space. I find that the tree tolerates and enjoys a med. 1" layer of finely chopped pine bark mulch or grass clippings during the dryest times. My mother paid $7,000 for a 20 ft. lavender blue Crepe to be moved from one property to the next, which was the most elegant highlight of her front yard since she planted it within a 12 foot circular cutout from the large amount of aggregate cement/stone wide walkways that lead from her tall contemporary home's entry. It is the envy of all her neighbors, they each stopped to say. It lives today after her having had it for over 20 years. The single worst thing a person can do to a Crepe Myrtle is to clip the end of a healthy branch any more than 6-8 ". It destroys the whole plant. Calif. muni- cipalities mutilate their trees by cutting whole branches off, Bonsai-style. Few survive or remain healthy, appearing over-stunted, and grossly distorted, in my opinion. The second worst mistake a person does is to plant several separate trees together allowing/encouraging them to intertwine/grow together into a single "tree". This is a disaster for the uninformed grower who thinks this is how others got their Crepes into a single stalk. There is NO short cut other than to keep all unwanted side branches and leaves clipped off the ONE stalk until it becomes a small growing tree, perhaps 5 yrs. or more. The third worst mistake is to feed them too much growth fertilizer which usually produces mostly leaves and few blooms. I have had GREAT results with spraying the leaves with Sea Kelp from Garden's Alive mail order, about once a month the first three months each year, IF the leaves look a bit puny or the growth sparse on each branch. The fourth is to trim them any time except the Fall or Spring. Remember too that they are always the last plant to bloom yet blooms the longest and most faithfully, with no pests, little maintenance, and very forgiving. Never transplant except in the very early Spring! Established plants tolerate hotter weather and reflected heat from concrete very well. They MUST have FULL SUN IN ORDER TO BLOOM, even though they will LIVE in part shade but not bloom. (Some growers have indicated that they cut the blossoms RIGHT AFTER THEY FINISH BLOOMING, which may be good practice, but I have NEVER done this. ) Note: "Dwarf Crepe Myrtles" can get to be 18 feet tall and 4 feet in base growth after many years. I prefer the smaller leaf varieties to the large leaf. White blooms are seldom as "showy" as other colors. Pale to med. pinks are LOVELY against a dark green shrub/hedge. Lavenders and Reds do well to stand alone . ALSO, DO NOT PLANT TOO NEAR A VEGETABLE GARDEN, BRICK FENCE,OR HOUSE, OR OTHER FOUNDATION BECAUSE THE ROOTS CAN SERIOUSLY CRACK THE FOUNDATION!! Some growers have successfully placed a 24" deep solid thin metal flashing underground "fence" around the roots to "contain" it PROR TO ENRICHING THE SOIL BUT RIGHT AFTER PLANTING AND SPREADING THE ROOTS FROM THE BALL, but I have no experience in this technique. Remember to GIVE EACH PLANT IT'S OWN SPACE OF ABOUT 6-8 FEET AROUND IT and to not allow any branch to grow/drape too closely towards a building structure, or guttering, because the roots mirror the top growth! Should this happen, the whole tree must be destroyed to save the structure poor planning might have damaged. Because Crepes drop blossoms all seasons, it can get messy besides a patio, drive, pool, or walkway, so keep this in mind planting at least 6-8 feet away from such locations. The blooms, when left to rot, will discolor patio furniture or cement. The trees will produce new plants from underground runners but are not as rampant as, say, Privet tree or Chinese Tallow tree roots. Being soft wood, Crepe Myrtles are easy to prune, trim, bundle trimmings. The bark is wonderfully light colored and smooth after each "shedding" which I gather as mulch for other locations in the garden. The growth habit is easy to maintain, in my opinion. I trim each tree's old blooms and dead wood in Fall and again in Spring for anything I missed or is not planned for it's future shape. Hope this helps someone? You can't go wrong with this plant unless your soil is chalk, too acidic, hard clay, boggy, or shady. Common sense works in all parts of the garden/landscape. It always pays to research and KNOW THE HISTORY AND REQUIREMENTS OF YOUR PLANT/SOIL/AREA. Enjoy!