Crepe myrtles are very popular flowering shrubs and trees well known for their colorful and long-lasting flowers.Muskogee crape myrtles make beautiful privacy hedges or property borders. Crape myrtle flowering takes place around the weather at the end of spring, usually in the early summertime, between mid-May summer and early June.The amazingly attractive flowering continues as long as 90-120 days depending on the environmental conditions and other different factors including the variety of shrubs or the trees. The leaf of a crepe myrtle has bright fall colors. This leaf is used for decorative purposes.The blooming period may vary from place to place depending on the climatic and environmental conditions. But the results that follow are just worth the wait. During the flowering season, the trees are covered with beautiful flowers of different shades of pink, or solid pink, purple or red. These colorfully hypnotic flowers are such a treat to the eyes. The lovely and long-lasting blooms make these trees appealing to plant lovers and the green fingers. But the late blossoming is not the main problem here. Not at all, the main issue that arises is when the growing season arrives but the plant doesn’t bloom accordingly as expected. After reading all about the crepe myrtle in your garden, you would also want to know how often do orchids bloom and when do tulips bloom.Why are my crepe myrtles not blooming? When you care for the plants a lot with all your heart throughout the year but still receive no satisfying results, the experience is totally disheartening. Though getting these plants to blossom is not a hard nut to crack but can still sometimes feel like a discouraging task when you don’t get the expected results you were excited for. Basically, there could be more than one reason your crape myrtles did not bloom as expected. Though they are habitual of blooming late, as they bloom by the time when all the other flowering shrubs are already done blooming. They are the last among the shrubs and flowering trees to bloom. Apart from that, there could be some other reasons responsible for blooming problem such as aphids.The cause could be related to many different issues. Aphids living in them could be one of the many reasons. It could be the environmental or cultural factors, poor pruning during dark and cold winters, lack of fertilizers, or maybe excess of them too!Late Pruning: When the crape myrtles plants are pruned late in the season, it may lead to the removal of new wood mistakenly which can alter the development of the buds of the flowers.Lack of sunlight: Another major reason may be the lack of sunlight. These flowering plants require a significant amount of sunlight, approximately around six hours per day, so a location with poor access to sunlight might affect its flowering cycles.Need for Fertilizers: Sometimes when everything seems to be OK, the problem might be with the soil. It should be regularly checked for the lack of phosphorus as this minor reason could affect the growth of the green.Excess of Nitrogen: Excess of nitrogen could also alter the growth of the flowers in crape myrtles plants. Too much nitrogen promotes healthy leaves but fails to work in favor of the flowers.Do crepe myrtles bloom at different times?Crape myrtles are very well known for their colorful and long-lasting flowers, which occur generally in summer. The blooming period starts generally between mid-May to early June. This continues for 13-20 weeks. In which the trees blossom different colorful flowers available in white, pink, and a light shade of purple and or red. It is also an interesting fact to know that the blooming period of these shrubs or trees is usually later than any other flowering plant you may find in your garden. In the fall, the foliage turns into a light shade from delicate yellows to intense reds.The process of blooming also depends on many factors including the environmental conditions, availability of sunlight and water, the timing of the pruning, and most importantly the variety of plants you have. Depending on the variety you have, the blooming process may vary by 6-8 weeks.While flowers in some varieties blossom in the month of May, others may have to wait longer till July or maybe even later.The amount of flowers also depends on the availability of proper sunlight, so the direct sun also plays an important role in the blooming process. Similarly, proper and punctual pruning is another factor. The plants that have been pruned gravely will be more delayed in the flowering process. Also, the use of slow-release fertilizer and high phosphorus in prime early spring encourages more colorful and plentiful blossoms.What happens if you don’t prune crepe myrtles?Crepe myrtles need minimal or rather no pruning at all. If the crepe myrtle has been planted in an area with adequate sunlight and room to grow, you can get a rounded canopy without pruning. In many cases, the canopy grows so large that pruning is not useful. If you do not choose the planting location accurately, the branches can extend onto sidewalks or edges of roads, requiring attention. If left unpruned, crape myrtles are known to produce a lot of flowers. The crape myrtle flowering reduces with an increase in pruning. Moreover, crape myrtle flowering tends to be larger for pruned crape myrtles than unpruned crape myrtles. But you must avoid the un-attractive pruning known as crape murder as it destroys the beauty of the crepe myrtle tree.Crepe Myrtle Pruning TipsPruning your crape myrtle is very crucial if you are expecting extravagant bloom in the flowering season, that is why it is highly recommended. But pruning must be done in a better way in order to achieve the desired results of lavish blossoms in the summer. Dwarf varieties grow to around 3-5 ft (0.9-1.52 m) while non-dwarf variants of myrtle can reach up to heights of 20 ft (6 m), which is several feet higher than other such trees.Professional gardeners often aggressively cut off large stems and bulky branches in order to limit and manage the size, as the branches take too much space and to uplift the production of more flowering and abundant summer bloom; which is popularly known as ‘Crepe Murder’. Maybe, because the only thing left after the process is a bare trunk, for the winter and the prime early spring. You are advised to prune crape myrtles generally during the late winter instead of early winter and the prime spring. During the late winter or spring, it is important to prune crape myrtles to avoid cutting off the buds that will lead to new growth. It is always advised not to prune aggressively during the winter. Pruning must be done at a suitable time and should be avoided late in the winter or spring season.Although pruning helps crape myrtles with new growth and fresh woods. It is always advised to avoid doing it. Over-pruning basically leads to less flowering. Due to over-pruning, trees lose a lot of branches, and in the flowering season, instead of more flowers and blossoms, the trees have to share nutrition for growing new twigs and branches, leading to less flowering.Crepe Myrtle CareWhen you show your care and affection for anything whether it be your pet dog or your beautiful flowering crape myrtles, the results are more positive than you can ever expect. It not only lets the tree bloom and blossom more beautifully but will also increase the life expectancy of the plant to a greater extent. There are few simple steps you can take to care of your crape myrtles. You must make sure you provide proper space for your trees or shrubs. You must watch that your plant stands at a place where it receives enough sunlight. Sunlight is an important requirement for crape myrtles shrubs or trees, with a minimum of six hours of exposure to the sun. Also, it must receive enough water and fertilizers as per requirement. While the less amount can be deadly, the excess amount of water or fertilizer will cause excess foliage growth and this foliage will be costly for bloom production. Proper pruning is also very essential for the proper growth of the plant. For the best results, pruning must be done carefully and must be avoided before it blossoms.You should trim away the dried and dead branches of the trees regularly. This step will allow comparatively more sunshine and air to reach the tree than before. Also, don’t just focus on reducing or decreasing the size by cutting the tree more often. You must also make sure to intensify the appearance of the tree very carefully.How long do crepe myrtles live? The fact that crape myrtles have been around for more than one thousand years is certainly very astonishing. These popular plants have been a part of our life for such a long duration and are still very popular among plant lovers and people who share a love for ornamental plants. The life span of a crape myrtle shrub varies, in general, depending on their environmental location and the climatic conditions in which they are planted. Moreover, crape myrtle also depends on the care you provide. Caring for a shrub increases its life expectancy. If you care about a shrub, crape myrtle can last long. The same rule applies here too. Basically, when provided with well-drained soil and adequate sun these trees survive a bit longer. It all depends on the type of care you provide, taking good care of crape myrtle trees gives them a moderate to long lifespan.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for when do crepe myrtles bloom then why not take a look at what flowers are safe for cats, or when do acorns fall?
Crepe myrtles are very popular flowering shrubs and trees well known for their colorful and long-lasting flowers.
