COLUMN: Please don't butcher the crepe myrtles, Destin! (PHOTOS)

Every year about this time, I see landscaping crews butchering the crepe myrtles in our area.

I assume people hire these landscapers because they are supposed to know how to prune. Last year when this started to happen, I called the city of Destin and warned them.

The butchering stopped and some trees were pruned properly. By butchering, I mean reducing beautiful majestic crepe myrtle trees into ugly stumps.  Sure they will produce more stalks that will still bloom no matter what you do to them, but please, this year can we prune them properly? First of all if your Crepe Myrtle isn’t a bush, never cut the top off.

You don’t even have to cut off last year’s dead blooms.  They will naturally fall off when the new growth starts.
The beauty of a crepe myrtle is in its sculptural form, producing strong branches that hold flowers upright, and open up its center to reveal the smooth, multi-toned bark that forms on mature tree trunks and branches.

Cutting it back to thick stubs each year makes these goals impossible! A graceful, full tree quickly becomes a fencepost or what might look like a “hat rack.” Each butchered limb grows a tangle of spindly whips too weak to hold up the flowers.

There is a right way to prune your crepe myrtles. Prune in late winter; February is perfect. Remove suckers at the base, remove any crossing or rubbing branches, and any branches that grow toward the center.  As the tree grows, gradually remove all side branches from the main trunks up to a height of 5 feet or so.  Try to remove those unwanted branches before they get thicker than a pencil. It is unnecessary to cut off old seedheads. (Again, they will fall off).

If yours have been butchered in the past, they can still be saved.

If you have thick short stumps within a few feet of the ground, there’s only one solution. Cut it back, all the way to the ground. It will come back, slowly, and when it does wait till next winter before any pruning. Next winter select three to five good trunks and cut off all others at ground level.  And then refer to the first part of this article and do not lop off the tops — ever again!

It also helps to purchase the right crepe myrtle for your space. If you want a small one as a bush, buy one that is a bush like Victor, Acoma, Hopi, Tonto, Zuni or one from the petite series. However, I love them the best as a tree; a lovely tree without “stubs.”

For more information about crepe myrtles check out this Web site: www.southernliving.com/home-garden/gardens/stop-don’t-chop-crepe-myrtles. And see for yourself.

Pat T. Fisher is a Miramar Beach resident and 20-year Destin gardener. She owned Pat’s Porch in Miramar Beach for eight years.