I usually wait until mid-January to write something on this topic but this week I saw my first severe pruning of a crape myrtle for this dormant season earlier this month. So, instead of visions of ...

This improperly pruned crape myrtle tree has undergone “crape murder,” which is when the entire crown of the crape myrtle tree is cut off. Courtesy of Leaf & Limb, a Raleigh-based tree care company ...

Somehow, the belief that crape myrtles should be brutally pruned by cutting off their tops persists, even though it's inaccurate. Crape murder is a term that has been coined to describe this severe ...

Crape murder is happening all over town. It doesn’t matter how horticulturists talk about proper pruning techniques, each year more and more trees are cut back to stubs. Standard crape myrtles have ...

Not long ago, I received the following email: “I have two crape myrtle trees in my front yard, one about 25 years old and one about 10 years old. They are in full sun. They usually bloom later than ...