1 Answer

Things You'll Need
Pruning shears
Lopping shears

Instructions
1
Plan your pruning for late winter. February is ideal but you can push the pruning into the very early spring if need be. The earlier you do it, though, the sooner you’ll have blooms.

2
Use pruning shears or lopping shears to remove branches and twigs. Chain saws are efficient but they can nick the remaining branches. Open cuts from chain saws can cause disease. Do not use a chain saw to lop off the top of the crepe myrtle tree. While this can produce a lot of blooms, it’s unhealthy for the tree.

3
Remove suckers of “watersprouts” that appear at the base of the tree. These additional sprouts can draw water away from the main tree. You can normally remove them by hand if you catch them early enough. If they are thick, you can remove them with pruning shears.

4
Thin out all of the twigs and small branches that clutter the body of the tree. Remove any clustered “stubs” that were left over from previous pruning attempts. Take out any branches that are rubbing against one another or are growing toward the center of the tree.

5
Pick three to five main limbs that will support the structure of the tree and prune all of the rest. A crepe myrtle should have an odd number of main trunks, with a minimum of three. The larger limbs that you are removing should be cut at the knuckle.

6
Remove all but one or two of the shoots on each limb. These shoots will become the new support branches of the crepe myrtle and will gain diameter before the blooms appear.

7
Leave space between the branches so that air can circulate. This helps cut down on the powdery mildew disease that strikes many types of crepe myrtles.

8
After the blooms start arriving, remove the weakest branches and open up the center of the tree. Remove the branches before they get thicker than a pencil for the best results.

9
As your tree grows, remove all of the exterior branches so the main trunks reach a height of around five feet.

10
If you’ve totally cut off the blooms of a crepe myrtle in the past, there’s still hope! Cut back the branches all the way down to the soil line. The next winter follow the proper pruning methods. In three to five years, you’ll have a beautiful tree.

Read more: How to Prune Crepe Myrtles | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4510802_prune-crepe-myrtles.html#ixzz2Mj4Nddi5