Q: I have a poorly pruned crapemyrtle that has the knobs on the ends. The knobs are rather large from years of the poor pruning.

Would you recommend cutting the knobs off? If not, what do you recommend?

A: This may take a couple of years but it’s not too hard to accomplish.

Cut the stem(s) just below each knob and then wait for sprouts to appear this April.

Select two or three vertical sprouts to keep and remove the rest in May. The crape will look pretty good by September but you may need to do a bit of shaping and superfluous sprout removal the following spring.

Over the years you’ll have a nicely formed crapemyrtle.

see

Correctly Pruned Crapemyrtle

and

Incorrectly Pruned Crapemyrtle

crapemyrtle poorly pruned