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we have 2 natchez crype myrtles, 3 or 4years old, approx 20 ft high. the umbrella shape has gotten quite wide. after a rain the flowers etc get heavy and now some branchs are breaking.
how can we prune to get stronger branchs. my under standing is that for every cut, 2 branchs will grow.
I have several of these in my yard as well, and while they're beautiful when they bloom, MAN are they messy! But, we love them.
There are several in my neighborhood, and I've seen folks cut them down to about 6 feet (basically just stumps at that point), only for them to bloom back like crazy in a short amount of time (maybe 6 weeks).
We're going to do that to some of ours that, like you, are getting very tall and when wet, sag heavily. One in particular is to the point of resting on our roof.
I've trimmed back numerous branches on ours over the past two years, and they will grow back multiple branches, not just two, from the cut.
Great trees, messy, but really great. You can also use a bungie cord to help support the stalks when under load. We've got a couple like that. A few of ours are approaching 25 feet in height.
I could be mistaken but believe the lower branches should be cut back to the main trunks in order to develop a true tree form. If you just shorten up a bunch of branches the CM will actually look like a bush rather than a tree.
At the nearby Walmart the island plantings are CM and they commit CM murder every spring so the trees don't block visibility or block the drive lanes so now they are dense, thick bushes, not trees.
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