Grow under Crepe Myrtle

I read somewhere it was difficult to get plants to grow under and near crepe myrtles. Is this true? Any experience with this?
What do you plant under and near your crepe myrtle?

I don't think you'll have trouble--there are some trees like walnuts that put out chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants but to the best of my knowledge CM's do not do that. There are some plants that just don't appreciate the shade or competition for moisture that comes from growing under any tree, but anything that does fine with dry-ish shade and can handle the amt of shade that they'll get ought to be fine.

Thanks. I'm trying to plan what to plant where.

Plant your crepe myrtles in spring/early summer to get them established. If planted in the fall, they don't survive their first winter generally. That's my only tip on crepe myrtle.

Next door neighbor has a gorgeous, well established crepe myrtle with day lilies planted around it which are thriving.

Crepe myrtles are everywhere around here. I've not had any problem growing plants around them or heard that their roots put out anything making it hard to grow around them.. Here's some of the things that are growing within1-3 feet of my crepe myrtle...Daffodils,lantana,rain lilies,verbena,iris, antique rose,snapdragons,impatiens...hope you have good luck with yours..

Thanks for the list of flowers. It helps.

I was out looking at the bed and also have columbine,alyssum,dianthus,and spider lilies in the area. It does produce a nice amount of shade for me during the summer,but here in Texas that is a very good thing to have. Things that grow in "full sun" for those in more northern areas appreciate some dappled afternoon shade for us.So you might want to consider the plants' sun needs when you are planning your area.You will have some shade in the area along with the lovely flowers and interesting bark it produces for winter interest. Great tree for us.

Yes, we love our Crepe Myrtles! I have a ruby one and a white one. I believe the ruby one is prettier. The white CMs look a little "dirty white" to me. My neighbor has one, and it looks the same to me. Just my opinion.
My ruby CM is in the edge of the lawn. My white one is on the edge of the flower bed. I had Alcea, (hollyhocks) with the white CM. They were tall and did well fairly near the CM.
I had to take all the Alceas out as they had rust really bad. I am still digging them out. I do love them, and they were pinks and reds.
I have recently "tried" growing larkspur, and they have been quite puny. That's when I thought maybe the CM was putting out something to keep the LS from growing. It must be said, however, I WS the LS and planted them in the garden in the spring--also started from seed in the early spring. I need to direct sow the LS in Oct.
Again, thanks for the flower suggestions. I really like allysum anywhere! Snapdragons is a good idea, and I hadn't thought of Columbine.

I have fuchsias, lilys, dafs and columbines under my crepe Myrtles and they do fine.

Oh, lilies would be good. I don't think I can grow Fuschia here--too hot and humid but I love it. I grow it in a hanging basket each summer.

MY main problem with growing under the crepe myrtles is the expansive root system that they send out. I end up having to chop up some roots just so that I can plant something in the ground. Doesn't seem to hurt the tree though, so far.

soil: I have that trouble with trees in general also shrubs. It seems you need to plant your bulbs, perennials at the same time you plant the shrubs and trees or you run into roots.

Birder - unfortunately, those were full grown crepe myrtles when we moved into the house. I am getting rid of the lawn to grow other stuff and that is when I am running into all the "root" problems. Here is a photo of the crepe myrtles in bloom in September with the lawn.

In March of last year, I started the getting rid of the lawn project. Here was where I started. One of my winter projects was to document my progress over the last 10 months - I may still get around to doing that.

Wow, soilsandup. I had to catch my breath when I enlarged your crape myrtle tree photo---STUNNING!!!!!!!!!! How long do they bloom for you down in Sacramento?

B-E-A-U-T-F-U-L! Thanks for sharing your picture and project. That is going to be gorgeous. Wouldn't it be easier to round up the grass. Then, put soil on top of the grass?

Thanks for those kind words.

Birder - yes, it would be easier to round up the grass, but I prefer to use as little herbicide as I can. For areas in which I can wait for the grass to die, I just turn them over like in that first patch. In other areas, I have laid newspaper and then top with soil and compost so that the grass will die in a few months without my having to do any digging. I have used roundup in some areas in which I want to plant right away, and want to use the dead grass as a mulch. And lasting, I have removed the sod altogether when I want to lower the elevation of the ground.

The crepe myrtles start blooming around late July to about early September. We did one trimming of the trees about 15 years ago, and have not touched it since. It is due for some trimming this year. Here is a more overview photo of the three trees in front.

This message was edited Feb 10, 2011 11:36 PM

This message was edited Feb 10, 2011 11:38 PM

And here is a photo from mid-August of this past year, 5 months after I first started this project. Most of the grass have been removed except for the remainder of the strip fronting the sidewalk. The dahlias did well, and I even put in a few pumpkins while I figure out what to plant permanently.

Pumpkins--how fun. The orange in the pumpkin and the fuschia in the crepe myrtle really makes the orange pumpkin pop.
I too don't like to use round up.
This is how we created our last garden bed:
We dug the grass up, set the grass aside the new garden bed, then put cardboard down that we had instead of recycling it, then put the grass clumps upside down on the cardboard. It all turned into soil and the grass really disappeared, It was the easiest garden bed we had ever created.

I know that CM get an extensive root system. I tried moving one that I planted two yrs prior thinking it wouldn't be that established. Boy was I wrong. It had a lot of deep roots and I had to tear up a lot to get it out. I decided right there I would never put one IN a flower bed again, they would for sure sap everything of water later on down the road as they got larger.

Boys don't I love those CMs. My heart aches when our son sent us pictures of how he has to take down one that must have been over 20 years old. The reason? Roots problem! The extensive root system is tearing up the paved walkway and the tree is too close to the house foundation. Learning from this experience, I'll keep these beauties further away from our driveway should I want to plant more in the near future.

I've one fairly young CM with hydrangear beneath. The hydrangear for some reason have not bloomed in years. (5 years old planting).

So I guess I should move the small one i planted close to the sewer pipes?

Great ideas everyone, I love CM's and have just started planting clematis under them in contrasting colors so there are clem flowers on the bush when there are no CM blooms, and a beautiful contrast in blooms when they are both blooming.

Not such a good idea to plant Clematis intertwining with Crape Myrtle. The bush sways in the wind too much and tears the Clem off at the roots!!!

Uh Oh, I guess that was a lesson learned. We all do things like that.

Roses, glad you mentioned the clematis problem. I was thinking about putting one in my white CM. Right now, I have lots and lots of annual poppies and dill. Dill has become a thug for me. I also, put some iris in this bed and some oriental poppies.
We have had rain for about 10 days now and I can't get in my beds because they are way too wet. I think I need a row boat! :(
I do have a Clematis 'Henrii' growing up into my Japanese Maple.

I've had several clematises growing through my CM for many years and none have ever been ripped from the ground. It's lovely to see the clematis blooming at the top of the CM in late August.

I love those clematis pictured here, Arlene. Beautiful. Here is an expanding hydrangeas that is under this CM, they never bloom for me. :((

My CM's were probably young and had no real thick steady branches close to the ground. I've tried two years in a row and will wait till the CMs are steadier closer to the ground until I try again. Just love the idea of this, Pirl, and would like to see the same results that you have.

Kim - what is the name of the hydrangea? There is no reason why it shouldn't bloom.

Thanks, Roses. You can give the clematis a head start and plant it on a trellis next to the CM so when the time comes it will grow right into it and bloom for you.

At the bottom of the CM I have 'Fireworks' clematis and it's a beauty (a gift from a DG person):

Arlene, I don't know the name of that hydrangea. It piggy-bagged into the CM's when I bought the trees/shrub. It has been several years...more than 5 years now I think. Fireworks look lovely with the variegated hosta.

Try some Bloom Buster product on the hydrangea. It won't hurt the CM and you might finally get some flowers on the hydrangea.

Thanks. I'll go out now and try and coax a stem or two onto the CM because last year it just wanted to show off on the cast iron scroll work, which is to the right of the CM.

Ditto, thanks Arlene.

Guess I need to post a picture of what my mess under my cm looks like! LOL! A multitude of plants come up off and on all year starting with daffs and paper white narcissus. It has Red Yucca, Red hot poker, W Tx mistflower, Sundrops, Blackfoot Daisy, Blanket Flower, Zexmenia, Wood Sorrel, Coneflower, Mealy Blue Sage, and Black-eyed susan. Those are ones I remember. Forgot daylily, a named iris, turks cap, sm black knight bf bush, and a giant coneflower that returned after digging up once!

I haven't found anything that wouldn't work there unless it doesn't have room. Full sun bed btw.

The only problem is the blooms fall off the tree and stick to plants. If you have Echinaceas or other plants with rough leaves, this will happen. The leaves will rot or get damaged by the blooms sticking to them. This is what happened here. You have to constantly remove the blooms from plants.

I have never experienced a problem, but then our weather is a lot different I guess.

You know, I started this thread about growing stuff with crepe myrtles. I had several plants in this flower bed, but was trying to get it "more organized". You should see it now! I had a plumber put in a hydrant. I told him to put it in the corner near the sidewalk. Instead, he put it at the opposite corner where I would have to walk through the entire garden to turn the water on, and drag the garden hose across the entire garden. I told him he would have to move it. Well, he did. Now, look at my garden! I lost a lot of flowers: Hollyhock, Iris, Oriental Poppies (I had growing for the first time in 5 years of trying), Daylily, and Phlox. They are all gone now. I dug up where I "thought" he would need area to put the hydrant in. Now, I will be starting completely over. Since we had to start over, my husband put in 5 bales of peat moss.
The whole garden is gone and I am kind of over whelmed as to where to start over. Plus, we're having 96 degree weather. It will be more difficult to get plants established now. Boo Hoo!

That's a shame that the damage was done, but you can try and put a positive spin on it and see it as the opportunity to have your dream garden..I always will plant something and it isn't quite the right color or shape or something. But because it is growing I can't make myself pull it up..so it stays and I have to work around it.. or worse it stays and is too big and takes up too much valuable space...but you get to start from scratch and learn from any mistakes you made in the past...Yes it is hard to get things going at this time of year...but I bet in a year it will be glorious!

Yes, teacup, that is what I tell myself. When I try to think about what I am going to put in the garden, I draw a blank. I guess I need to look at some catalogs. When I started this thread, I was kind of "re-working" this garden for the reasons you mentioned.
I am wondering if some of the daylilies will eventually show up from roots. This was my main garden for annual poppies. So, I won't have them as they did not get to flower.
I have some Campanula 'Telham Beauty' that I started from seed. They are just now planting size. I am thinking about putting them in the shaded part of the garden.
http://www.dianeseeds.com/campanula-persicifolia.html
Mo Dept says sun to part shade: so I guess that won't work in the shade. I need something tall and grows in the shade. There's a lily I have that is supposed to grow in full shade that gets fairly tall. I cannot remember the name of it, however. Monkshood grows in full shade here. It doesn't show bloom until August, but it sure is a pretty flower.

Can you tell I am thinking out loud? :)

Birder, I know the feeling...
I had a tree service do a lot of trimming to let some more light into my woodland.
5 years ago, they did a great job and I couldn't even tell they had disturbed anything.
This time, it looks like an atomic bomb decimated the entire garden.
That happened late last fall. I was depressed about it all winter.
But I spent the spring having a great time replanting the area.
It was such a pleasure having room to plant stuff!
I'm thinking maybe I should hire them every 5 years to demolish my garden,
even if I don't need any trees trimmed, just so I can start over.