Crepe Myrtle Pruning

It's Winter time in Florida, so it's time to prune the Crepe Myrtles. There are many misconceptions when it comes to this practice, and the phrase 'Crape Murder' comes to mind. Many like to chop off all the branches  back to a nub or 'knuckle' in an attempt at pollarding. The object of pruning, however, is to provide a cleaner appearance and to promote a healthy architecture of branches to support the heavy flower pods that will be prevalent in the summer. I have shown here an example of a specimen that has been trained over the past several years to demonstrate this practice.

2010- How I found the specimen. 

2011- First prune. Removed some center 'leaders' and promoted branching.

2012- developing branch architecture

2013- After 3 full seasons , the difference is apparent