He offers these tips on how to.

How to trim a crepe myrtle into a tree. Only young crepe myrtle trees need pruning, and these saplings should be pruned with great care. Cut it down, paint any new shoots with concentrated roundup and know crepe myrtles are aggressive growers, hard to kill, and should never be planted anywhere close to your home’s. Crape myrtle trees can be pruned to look more like trees, and the first time that they should be pruned is in the middle of the winter.

Cutting back too many or. We’re a little different than the average tree services company. For one, excessive trimming can ruin a crepe myrtle.

Move next to all side branches growing from the main trunks up to a height of at least. Gradually cut off all side branches from the main base as the tree gets taller. Crepe myrtles make ideal feature trees for home gardens, because they’re compact in size, and respond well to pruning.

To prune crepe myrtle, rogers says to start with a pair of sharp pruning shears that you’ve wiped down with rubbing alcohol, rinsed and dried. After selecting the best trunks remove all the rest, cutting them off. Cut off any unwanted suckers growing out of the roots or the base of the tree.

Put the chainsaw away and only use hand shears, loppers, and a hand saw. All crepe myrtles need to be grown in an open sunny. Start with the branches coming up from the base.

Hand shears help with cutting smaller pieces of the tree, loppers help by removing slightly larger limbs, and the hand. Simply remove any extra stems protruding from the ground. Cut more than that and it may result in a stressed tree pushing out a lot of new growth,’ says dean dietrich.