Planting Crapemyrtles

I have been getting a lot of request for information about planting crapemyrtles. I have always spelled it as crapemyrtle, but I am a little confused because MS Word always tells me I have misspelled the word. I have been seeing the plants listed by several nurseries as crape myrtles. Dr. Michael Dirr spells it the way I have always spelled it, so I am going to stick with crapemyrtle. Anyway, I am talking about Lagerstoemia indica.

I want us to discuss the planting of crapemyrtles. There are some key things to keep in mind when planting crapemyrtles:
1. Crapemyrtle is a small tree that will grow up to 25 feet tall depending on the variety.
2. There are many different varieties that will provide varying shapes and sizes.
3. Carl Whitcomb maintains that crapemyrtles unlike most other deciduous plants will not develop new roots during the cold winter months.
4. Crapemyrtles grow rather fast. I stuck about 4,000 crapemyrtles in to root during the first 2 weeks of May. Today, 9/9/2008, these same plants are about 3 feet tall. As you can see, they grow fast.
5. Crapemyrtles like sunshine. Carefully choose the location where you will plant your crapemyrtles.
6. Crapemyrtles are prone to develop powder mildew, black spot, sooty mold, tip blight, leaf spot, root rot, aphids and Florida wax scale.
7. But they are robust and usually overcome most problems. That sounds a little contradictory, but if you choose the right location for your crapemyrtles, they will do well.
8. I find that locating crapemyrtles in bright sunshine tends to solve a lot of their problems. In doing this, it is important to consider the plants around the location you are considering to determine what those plants will become 5, 10, and 15 years into the future.

Keep these points in mind as you plan the location and planting of your crapemyrtles. Now, let me lay out a list of steps that I feel are important when planting crapemyrtles. Many of these are steps that would pertain to several plants. You may have other steps that you feel are important. I would like to hear from you. Some of you will undoubtably point out that I missed some steps and I probably did. Sometimes it is easy to leave out steps concerning things that you have done so many times.

1. We recommend that you have the planting location prepared when your plants arrive. If the plants are to go into a bed as a grouping, you should till the soil in the bed to a depth of 4 inches to 6 inches. This will give you a good loose bed in which to plant any groundcover that will be planted after the crape myrtles are in place. This is important to prevent damage to the crapemyrtles after they are planted. It would also be a good idea to cover the bed with about 2 inches of mulch such as ground pine bark. Do not use freshly ground green mulch because when it gets mixed in with the soil it could mold and start some problems in the soil. Decomposed leaves will work well for this. If you do not have this material available, do not worry about it. You can add mulch after all the planting is done in the bed.
2. On the day your crapemyrtles are to arrive, dig the holes for your plants. Most crapemyrtles that we ship by USPS will be in 1 quart pots. This pot is also called a 4.5 inch deep pot. It has a volume of about 1.5 quarts. I recommend that you dig the hole twice the size of the pot. For a 1 quart pot that would mean the hole needs to be about 9 – 10 inches wide and about 10 inches deep. If you have placed a covering of fine mulch over the bed, you will be mixing some of the mulch into the soil that you dig out of the hole. That is a good thing. Loosen the soil that you have dug out, breaking up any large clumps of soil. You are now ready for your crapemyrtles.
3. As soon as the crapemyrtles arrive, open the shipping box, move the plants to a shady area and water the plants. Our plants have been grown in pine bark, so the watering will not create a muddy mess for you to deal with.
4. Move the crapemyrtles to the planting holes. Using one of the plants, go to each prepared hole and place enough soil back into the hole so that when you set the plant down into the hole, the top of the potting soil in the pot will be even with the surrounding soil.
5. Working with one plant at a time, remove the plant from the pot being careful to save roots that are growing out of the pot. If you loose some of the outside roots, that will be ok. In the nursery we normally just cut those outside roots away. You do what you want here, the plant will be fine either way. You will notice that some of the roots growing inside the pot have begun to circle the inside of the pot. Carefully loosen those roots so that they are pointing away from the plant. Begin adding the soil that you have around the hole. Keep spreading the roots as you add the soil. You can firm the soil a little, but do not pack the soil. Simply place the soil in the hole being sure to fill all the voids. You will see the purpose in this in step 7.
6. When the hole has been filled to the top, the top of the potting soil the crapemyrtle grew in and the soil you planted the crapemyrtle in should be at the same level. Now, I want you to create a little dam around the plant about 8 inches from the plant. When you water, this dam will help hold the water so it can soak slowly into the ground.
7. After all the crapemyrtles are in the ground, water each plant with a hose with no attachments on the end. You do not want to sprinkle the top of the plant, but rather, run the water directly around the base of the plant so that the hole is flooded. As the water goes down, it will carry the soil into air pockets that may have been left during planting. This is when you will realize the importance of having broken up the soil and having mixed in some of the mulch.
8. Mulch the plants. If you are working in a large bed that will receive groundcover or smaller shrubs, then just mulch around each crapemyrtle. Many materials are available in different parts of the country that are suitable for mulch. I recommend material that is inexpensive in your area. Pine straw is attractive and is good mulch. Bark nuggets of different types are available in most areas and will do a good job. It is important that you provide a good mulch around the plants that will cut down on evaporation from the soil (saving you money on water) thereby, allowing the plant to become established with good roots. You may be asking youself just how much mulch do you need. If you are using pine bark or pine nuggets, you need about 2-3 inches. Let the mulch get a little thinner close to the crapemyrtles. This will insure that you have good air circulation around the trunk of the plant. If using pine needles, you can put it about 6 inces thick. It will settle down over time. Inspect the mulch each spring and again in the fall. You will need to add a little mulch at least once a year. Remember, the mulch is being mixed with the soil as the mulch deccomposes and little critters work with the decomposing mulch and soil. This is where your mulch goes. Sometimes some might get washed out with heavy rain or blown out of the bed with heavy wind, but for the most part you mulch will be slowly decomposing and enriching your soil.
9. When you water, and I recommend that you water your plants once a week during the first season unless it has been raining a lot, give the plant a good soaking. This will encourage roots to develop deep into the soil. Deep roots will give the plant greater stability and will allow it to go after water that is naturally in the soil.

Now that you have the crapemyrtles in the ground, you are ready to begin thinking about the next project you are going to tackle. So I would recommend that you go to Hoskins Garden Shop online so you can start planning your next project. If you have questions, please email Randall so I can help you.