The Nursery Chronicles: Rise of the Lagerstroemia

[Fonk]

Hello!

I made a post about a recent nursery visit talking about a red beech. This is the other tree I got on that visit. It is a Lagerstroemia (indica? I think) which seemed like a fun tree to grow. It has relatively thick trunks and it seems like it sprouts like crazy.

Also, the base, which is partially hidden, seems promising. For 15 € I thought why not.

I hope a keep record of the development of the tree in this thread, any comment or advice is more than welcome!

I'll start by asking a question: when is a good time to repot this? Do I have to wait until next year or could it be done now?

Many thanks for reading!

 

[victorengel]

Those are ubiquitous here in Texas. They are very tolerant of abuse. They like to sprout from the ends of cut branches and from the base. They sprout elsewhere, too, but prefer top and bottom for some reason. I don't think you will have any issue repotting now.

 

[Fonk]

I went ahead and repotted. I had some of these ceramic pots, which I found interesting for training: they are pretty wide and round, but not too deep. They also look a bit nicer than the plastic ones

 

[victorengel]

I spent way too much money on a dwarf variety. To compensate for spending too much money, I found one with two trunks. Here they are after planting them both in the same pot after a severe pruning, using some found media. As sold at the nursery, they were about 10 inches tall, in the crepe myrtle section where most of the potted plants were 5' tall or more.

 

[victorengel]

Here they are before being split, but after I'd combed out the roots for the most part. The squares on the linoleum are about 8 inches across. It is 'Pocomoke'. I found this online: "‘Pocomoke’ is a miniature hybrid crape myrtle hybrid (complex five generation cross generally described as L. indica x L. fauriei) that was begun in 1967 and completed in 1989 by the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. Plants were introduced by commercial nurseries in 2000-2001. 'Pocomoke' is a deciduous, upright-spreading, densely-branched, dwarf shrub that typically grows over the first eight years to only 19" tall and to 35" wide but will grow taller and wider when grown in-ground or with more age. It primarily features (1) glossy, elliptic to oblong, dark green leaves that emerge maroon in spring, turn dark green in late spring, and finally turn bronze-red in fall, (2) terminal inflorescences of crepe-papery, deep rose-pink flowers that bloom from early/mid-summer to early fall, and (3) gray to tan bark which exfoliates with age. Flowers give way to round seed capsules which often persist well into winter."

 

[Fonk]

After a bit, I decided to chop a bit one of the twin trunks of the right. After all, this tree is for learning!



Seeing as this seems like a hardy tree, I'm thinking about carrying on and doing major cuts on all the trunks but I don't want to fly too close to the sun...

I'm also curious about if the twin trunks would tend to fuse at the base or if I should cut the one already cut all the way down (but that would leave a pretty big scar on the other trunk). In the next picture the closer trunk is the already cut trunk.



Anyway, this is not very interesting, compared to most of the beautiful trees I see around here, but I hope it will improve with time.

At least it's keeping me very entertained

 

[Fonk]

I spent way too much money on a dwarf variety. To compensate for spending too much money, I found one with two trunks. Here they are after planting them both in the same pot after a severe pruning, using some found media. As sold at the nursery, they were about 10 inches tall, in the crepe myrtle section where most of the potted plants were 5' tall or more.

View attachment 548225

Nice! I ordered some jiffy to try and propagate some cuttings. Seems to me that they should root easily.


How are your trees doing now? Or are these recent pictures?

 

[victorengel]

Nice! I ordered some jiffy to try and propagate some cuttings. Seems to me that they should root easily.


How are your trees doing now? Or are these recent pictures?

They are very recent - less than a week. I bought the plant over the weekend.

 

[victorengel]

These plants will fuse twin trunks. However, they also have deciduous bark, which can get in the way. If you want them to fuse, it would be a good idea to watch and see if they are producing bark between the two trunks. Probably remove that. Also, ensure there is no movement from one trunk relative to the other - that will prevent fusion.

 

[Fonk]

These plants will fuse twin trunks. However, they also have deciduous bark, which can get in the way. If you want them to fuse, it would be a good idea to watch and see if they are producing bark between the two trunks. Probably remove that. Also, ensure there is no movement from one trunk relative to the other - that will prevent fusion.

That's a good idea, removing the bark between trunks.