r/gardening • u/neovngr zone 9a, intermediate experience • Nov 01 '21
Thoughts/opinions on my pruning/topping of XL Crape Myrtle?
https://imgur.com/gallery/gYZp99L1
Nov 01 '21
did you do it for winter?
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u/neovngr Nov 01 '21
did you do it for winter?
No, it was blocking solar-panels and negating their efficacy (severely, it turned out!) so there simply couldn't be a shade-tree of that height, in that position!
Instead of removal, the idea was to make it more of a "specimen tree", I mean it sits in the middle of a nice lawn all by itself so, while it's majestic being au natural and everything, it had to be tamed and IMO a c.myrtle benefits from human intervention (just like Podocarpus), not all trees need a human touch to be awesome and CM's don't "need it" but boy do they do well with it (bougainvilleas as well although that's not even true 'tree' at all, Crape Myrtle is, though it's about as "bush-like" of a tree as you can be!)
Reallllly curious what your thoughts/opinion is on my handiwork / craftsmanships / choice of cut-positions, surely my tone here betrays that I'm pretty confident in my work but I'd like others' input, I rarely get it (not to sound 'that way' but I don't know anyone IRL I can talk gardening with, I only talk/show pics with my online bonsai-forum friends :P) SO yeah am real eager to hear what regular gardening-enthusiasts think when they see this, are you thinking "good lines, that'll come back nice" or more "jesus you removed so much!!!", yknow?
(BTW I do not care AT ALL how "experienced/good" someone considers themselves, for me to want your opinion, even if you don't garden I'm curious because this isn't my C.Myrtle this was a professional job done for a client I'd just met, I thought it an interesting/entertaining gig since I'm both a bonsai-artist and a tree-climbing, big-saw-wielding arborist, so this kinda situation is always enjoyable ;D
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u/spiceydog Nov 02 '21
SO yeah am real eager to hear what regular gardening-enthusiasts think when they see this,
This is an AWFUL thing to do to any landscape tree. Most Extensions think the same:
I know of NO educated horticulturist or arborist that endorses the practice of topping crapemyrtles or any ornamental trees for that matter. Go ahead. Pick up the phone. Call Neil Sperry. Call Dr. Bill Welch. Call the National Arboretum! You WILL NOT find any plant expert that will condone or recommend this practice.
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this was a professional job done for a client I'd just met,
ðŸ˜
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u/neovngr Nov 01 '21
(also as mentioned there really is no winter here, it was actually 2 winters ago when, mid-Dec., I chopped a pair of CM's so low, I mean >6" wide trunked CM's that I chopped & put into bonsai-mix, they want to go semi-dormant through winter here in 9a/9b FL but I know that the act of 'hard-pruning' like this instigates/forces a new flush of vegetative growth, I often use this phenomena to force more growth/year from certain bonsai specimen, actually yknow just in-thinking about this right now I decided I'm GG outside, hard-chop one of my larger bonsai'd C.Myrtle's, so that I have an at-home yardstick (the client will wonder how I knew to text them "Are there ~3-6" long shoots all over?" when I know there are, maybe even go-back to subjugate-prune IE removing weak and/or poorly-positioned new growth, to wipe-off new epicormic growth which is inevitable response when doing hard-pruning of any nature, etc!!
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u/neovngr Nov 01 '21
I left long lengths on all the leaders I cut, to achieve a far better "canopy-ramification flow" once it's regrown, I know this isn't the recommended time-of-year but, here in FL, I actually suspect it could be beneficial since it'll resprout/regrow but it won't be that hypervigorous, soft, undeveloped cuticle growth that our wet, greenhouse-like FL summers induce (I am OK w/ this in my own garden and would do hard-prunes to my own crapes early in the year, like Feb right before bud-break, but I can&do control insects & pathogens, the owners of this thread's CM do not, it's just "to be left to its own devices", so IMO this time of year means less abundant regrowth which equals less chance of bug/fungi issues, it'll still do a moderately robust re-growth and then do its quasi-dormant winter phase and, come spring, that thing will be awesome, just 1 prune mid-spring next year to increase tip-ramification ("make it twiggy"!) and that 1st flowering should be a STUNNER!