Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener: Transplanting crape myrtles, 1 by hcmcdole

hcmcdole wrote:
Crepe myrtles are hard to kill. Even if your transplant happens to die, more than likely the roots left behind from the mother plant will usually push new plants up in no time. I\'ve moved a few - most are successful but the roots left behind always find a way to push up some new plants. A volunteer in our front bed was dug up twice and the first time the transplant did die. The roots quickly grew new plants and I dug those up earlier this year (five plants - lost the two smallest ones) and now the roots are sending up new plants so I will spray and cut these until I kill the mother plant.

I also dug up 3 purchased plants (Tonto) and moved them from their original location (close to the side of the house) to close to our property line - about 8 feet further away. The roots left behind sent up many new plants from all the severed roots. I pruned out what I didn\'t want and had a nice little allée for a few years. Just cut all the second growth wood to the ground a week or two ago to give the other plants more sun. Will probably be fighting the new growth for a couple of years by cutting and spraying.

Here is a photo of the Tonto CMs where the ones on the right were second growth from the severed roots and the ones on the left were the original plants.

I just saw your second post after composing this and would have to say your plant may have a hard time making it since you\'ve knocked so much \"dirt\" off the roots.. Yes, the tap root must be cut if you want to get that out of the hole. The severed roots should send up new plants.