For vibrant summer color, few flowering plants can compete with the crepe myrtle. Just look around your neighborhood. Nearly every street in the South is lined with these blooming trees from mid-June ...

Garden columnist Dan Gill answers readers' questions each week. To send a question, email Gill at dgill@agcenter.lsu.edu. About a year ago, we redid our flowerbeds and added three crape myrtle trees.

Crape myrtle blooms on new growth, so the best time to cut back these trees is in late winter, before new growth has sprouted. January through March is generally the best time to prune a crape myrtle, ...

I usually wait until mid-January to write something on this topic but this week I saw my first severe pruning of a crape myrtle for this dormant season earlier this month. So, instead of visions of ...