Cut off spent crape myrtle blossoms by late July to encourage flowering again.

I’ve heard that if you deadhead crape myrtles, they’ll bloom again. Is this true?

Many varieties of crape myrtles can be encouraged to bloom a second time, but timing is important. Deadheading crape myrtles (removing dead or dying flowers) encourages new sprouts and blooms, but if you deadhead too late in the season, the tender new growth that is produced can be damaged by cold weather.

Follow these tips when deadheading crape myrtles:

• July Deadline: If the blooms on your crape myrtles are already fading by the end of July, deadheading can encourage another (probably smaller) bloom in late summer.
• Leave Late Bloomers Alone: Depending on your climate, many popular crape myrtle varieties don’t start blooming until June and keep on going straight through until fall. These varieties shouldn’t be deadheaded – not only can they be damaged by cold weather, but they probably won’t have time to produce more blossoms anyway.

To deadhead your crape myrtles, simply snip off the flower heads once the color begins to fade. If you aren’t trying to encourage a second bloom, leave the blossoms alone and enjoy the lovely seed heads that follow.

Further Information

• How to Grow Crape Myrtles (article)
• Why Aren’t My Crape Myrtles Blooming? (article)
• How to Grow Crape Myrtles from Seed (article)

Tags: , bloom, crape myrtle, deadhead, Flowers