It is pruning time for shrub roses, hydrangeas, gardenias, and other summer-blooming shrubs. And yes, even crape myrtles and vitex, for those who choose to do so.
In fact, last week somebody beat me to a crape myrtle tree I harvest every year for material to maintain a woven-wattle herb border at the Ag Museum in Jackson. I expertly pollard the tree by pruning long, limber stems back to thick knobs.
Oh, I’m aware that some folks sniff that this is unnatural. Yeah, and so is shaping boxwoods into big green meatballs or espaliering a magnolia flat against a wall. Or, for that matter, plucking natural eyebrows.
But we do it with all kinds of shrubs and small trees which are commonly sheared, balled, pyramided, espaliered, bonsaied, sculpted, and topiaried into fantastic shapes. Two very common examples of the latter are the ancient Japanese art forms niwaki or “floating clouds” which we call “poodle plants” and kobushishitate or “fist pruning” (balls on the ends of stems), which even arborists with the Royal Horticulture Society do. All over England.
Wait, isn’t pruning crape myrtles a horticultural sin? First time I heard the term “crape murder” – the widespread ruining of the strong architectural form of perfectly healthy crape myrtle trees – was from my old friend Steve Bender, senior garden editor for Southern Living magazine. It was originally referring to how some folks whack the plants back into thick bare trunks with no consideration for the natural shapes or going back to thin the witch-broom sprouts. It really is butchery.
But what started as an insider joke about bad pruning went mainstream, with garden writers, Master Gardeners and others losing their minds as they jumped on the catchy term and along the way making it so nobody can touch a crape myrtle without being hissed at. All the time knowing that crape myrtles are nearly impossible to kill; you can shear one off at the ground with a pickup truck and it will quickly sprout back out as a flowering shrub.
So, the truth is – and I am a trained arborist who taught the course in college – to prune or not to prune a crape myrtle or vitex is a matter of personal style, not a horticultural edict. Sure, it looks kinda goofy to some folks, but it mostly boils down to a matter of personal preference. And it’s not my place to criticize – or applaud – a garden practice that really doesn’t matter much in any big pictures, any more than I dare make snarky comments about what some folks do to poodle dogs.
Seriously, there is a proper way to prune a crape myrtle without ruining its natural shape. First thing is to cut out sprouts growing straight up from the base or inner limbs, then thin, cluttered limbs and branches, being careful to not leave stubs lest they rot into the tree. If an entire tree needs cutting back for size control, do it in layers, cutting trunks at different heights, not all straight across. And be sure to go back later and thin the cluttered, weak, “witch’s broom” sprouts into just the strongest two or three. And know that there’s no horticultural purgatory if you mess up.
The bottom line remains that the historic, useful and decorative practice of pruning, shaping, and even pollarding doesn’t really harm crape myrtles or vitex. If you really don’t like how it looks, simply don’t do it. Those of you who do prune, know that you are in good company world-wide.
For examples of both well-pruned and historic pollarded crape myrtles, visit my blog.
Felder Rushing is a Mississippi author, columnist, and host of the “Gestalt Gardener” on MPB Think Radio. Visit his blog at felderrushing.blog. Email gardening questions to rushingfelder@yahoo.com.
