For vibrant summer color, few flowering plants can compete with the crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica). Just look around your neighborhood. Nearly every street in the South is lined with these ...

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 ...

Crepe myrtles, Lagerstroemia indica, vary in size from dwarf shrubs to multi-trunked and single-trunk trees growing to 30 feet tall. Most varieties produce beautiful blooms starting in spring or ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Multiple crepe myrtle trees growing in a housing development. - Olesia Bilkei/Shutterstock You may be tempted by the fluffy blooms ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Now’s the time of year you’re most likely to see naked crape myrtle trees, the unfortunate consequence of improper wintertime ...

correctionIn an earlier version of this article, the last name of a Smithsonian Gardens arborist was incorrectly stated. He is Jacob Hendee, not Jacob Hender. The article has been corrected. Spring ...

Somehow, the belief that crape myrtles should be brutally pruned by cutting off their tops persists, even though it's inaccurate. Crape murder is a term that has been coined to describe this severe ...

This improperly pruned crape myrtle tree has undergone “crape murder,” which is when the entire crown of the crape myrtle tree is cut off. Courtesy of Leaf & Limb, a Raleigh-based tree care company ...