Drooping crepe myrtle and panicle hydrangea - Ask Extension
I have a well-established and apparently healthy crepe myrtle and a three-year old panicle hydrangea. Both started out the summer growing vigorously a...
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Drooping crepe myrtle and panicle hydrangea #848284
Asked September 01, 2023, 8:51 PM EDT
I have a well-established and apparently healthy crepe myrtle and a three-year old panicle hydrangea. Both started out the summer growing vigorously and looking beautiful. By mid-August both plants were beginning to bloom. The plants are not near each other and the only similarity is that both were pruned fairly lightly last Winter. All was well and the blossoms were numerous and huge by late August. So huge, in fact, that the branches were beginning to droop badly. Then yesterday's rain weighed the branches down so the hydrangea blossoms are actually on the ground and the crepe myrtle branches are breaking. Is this normal or the result of the light pruning or something else? What can I do to strengthen the branches in the future? What should I do right now to save these beautiful plants?
Clackamas County Oregon
Expert Response
Hi Patricia and thanks for your questions about your crepe myrtle and panicle hydrangea. Yes, our heavy rain did a number on our blooming plants and for this year, it will probably work best to prop up the drooping branches, cut off the broken ones and wait for the plants to go dormant to do anything else.
Panicle hydrangeas should be pruned in the late winter or early spring before they break dormancy. They develop flowers on the new growth. Cut out the completely woody branches on the inside. Cut 1/2" to 1" above a budding node at a 45 degree angle and these buds will be the new branches and blooms.
Crepe myrtles do not like severe if any pruning. According to Pacific Horticulture website:
"Excessive pruning causes stunting and leads to unattractive scars that require time to heal; the rank growth stimulated by severe pruning may make a crape myrtle more susceptible to disease and cold damage. The most common outcome is vigorous but weak growth that is unable to support the heavy trusses of flowers; some branches may even snap at
their peak of bloom."
They should recover next year, but only prune to keep them open to air flow. This was an amazing year for crepe myrtles due to our heat waves, and I have seen fantastic flowering from all the ones in our neighborhood. The ones at my church are almost never pruned and they did not lose branches in the rain.
Good luck with next year,
Panicle hydrangeas should be pruned in the late winter or early spring before they break dormancy. They develop flowers on the new growth. Cut out the completely woody branches on the inside. Cut 1/2" to 1" above a budding node at a 45 degree angle and these buds will be the new branches and blooms.
Crepe myrtles do not like severe if any pruning. According to Pacific Horticulture website:
"Excessive pruning causes stunting and leads to unattractive scars that require time to heal; the rank growth stimulated by severe pruning may make a crape myrtle more susceptible to disease and cold damage. The most common outcome is vigorous but weak growth that is unable to support the heavy trusses of flowers; some branches may even snap at
their peak of bloom."
They should recover next year, but only prune to keep them open to air flow. This was an amazing year for crepe myrtles due to our heat waves, and I have seen fantastic flowering from all the ones in our neighborhood. The ones at my church are almost never pruned and they did not lose branches in the rain.
Good luck with next year,
Thank you for the information.
Patricia
