Brent Wilson · Gardenality Administrator · Zone 8A · 10° to 15° F · Comment About Pruning
Crape myrtles do not have to be pruned. However, if you want to form a nice tree with a full canopy and heavier flowering, pruning is required. Rather than go into all the details of pruning a crape myrtle tree here I'll just post a link to an article I wrote that provides detailed instructions for a method I've used successfully for 25 years: www.gardenality.com/Articles/344/How-To-Info/Pruning/How-To-Prune-A-Crape-Myrtle/default.html

Lee Veal · Gardenality Seed · Zone 8A · 10° to 15° F · Comment About Problems
We have an extremely large crepe myrtle, easily 20' that looks like it has not been trimmed in many years. My husband just trimmed it back to about 6' and I am concerned it is just hacked. I suppose that all we can do now is wait to see if it grows?

Brent Wilson · Gardenality Administrator · Zone 8A · 10° to 15° F · Comment About Pruning
Hi Lee,

Since your tree was cut back from 20 feet tall to 6 feet tall, I would agree with you in that it was "hacked" to far back...much too far. When a crape myrtle is cut this far back it will send out new growth and continue to grow but never look like it might have when and if it was properly pruned. That being said, and outside of just removing the remaining stumps, there are things you can do now that might give you somewhat of an attractive tree again.

Here's a link to an article that provides instructions for corrective pruning when a crape myrtle has been hacked back to stumps:

www.gardenality.com/Articles/345/How-To-Info/Pruning/How-To-Prune-A-Crape-Myrtle/Instructions-for-Pruning-a-Crape-Myrtle.html

Hope this info is helpful,
Brent