AusBonsai

I have just dug this crepe myrtle and I barely had the energy to go upstairs for the camera!!! It's one of two I have had in the garden for a few years and have kept butchering them and they get so tall. Was going to get rid of them entirely until I saw what can be done with them on the net... Sooooo, has anyone got any advise for me as to cutting this one back....how tall...how short....which trunks have to go etc. There is a lovelly soft bend in the main trunk which I would like to keep but I think I would have to leave it too tall to have that and then I'd never be able to lift it. I've noticed you guys are pretty ruthless when it comes to chopping as you want to show your trees at their best, so I guess you all make sacrifices.
Anyway, all comments and ideas welcome
Loretta

Loretta wrote:I have just dug this crepe myrtle and I barely had the energy to go upstairs for the camera!!! It's one of two I have had in the garden for a few years and have kept butchering them and they get so tall. Was going to get rid of them entirely until I saw what can be done with them on the net... Sooooo, has anyone got any advise for me as to cutting this one back....how tall...how short....which trunks have to go etc. There is a lovelly soft bend in the main trunk which I would like to keep but I think I would have to leave it too tall to have that and then I'd never be able to lift it. I've noticed you guys are pretty ruthless when it comes to chopping as you want to show your trees at their best, so I guess you all make sacrifices.
Anyway, all comments and ideas welcome
Loretta

Hi Loretta, Just thought Id give my two bobs worth, but please listen to other opinions before deciding what you're happiest with. If it were my tree, I would cut it down to where it divides and hopefully it would shoot just below that divide. However they also have a tendency to shoot right at the bottom making multiple trunks. By the end of spring, choose which shoot or shoots you would want to develop further into your trunk/trunks. You can clean or carve out the ugly bits in a seasons time during late summer or early autumn. Crepe myrtles are tough trees but brittle so keep that in mind when your wiring.

Thanks Edward, much appreciated. I will seriously consider your idea...it really does appeal to me.
Loretta

gday Loretta

this could be a very nice tree mate that reverse taper though is something that needs to go, a chop just below that and then regrow i beleive is the only thing you can do as it wont get better with time, only worse.

here is a virt for you

Thanks Jamie, appreciate the guidance and support. I cut it today a little above where the u shape of the two trunks is. It looks 100% already.

Loretta

hi loretta,

cutting above that inverse/reverse taper is good for now, it should shoot back since it has been cut and then you can cut back to a selected leader and develop from there. that buldge has to go though after it has shot back.

Jamie wrote:hi loretta,

cutting above that inverse/reverse taper is good for now, it should shoot back since it has been cut and then you can cut back to a selected leader and develop from there. that buldge has to go though after it has shot back.

does that mean removing the smaller the trunk and just having one??? And does that mean grinding the bulge off, I don't know how you mean getting rid of the bulge. Or do you mean wait for new shoots below the bulge and then cutting above them???

Sorry Jamie I was so intent trying to understand what you're trying to tell me I forgot to say thanks

Much appreciated...Loretta

no probs loretta, pleaure to help where i can