crepe myrtle bush

Question

I have two crepe myrtle bushes and each one has plants coming up from them. Can they be transplanted some place else in my yard, and if so, when is the best time to transplant?

Answer 1

They are root suckers. You can remove them without harm to the tree, and if they have roots when you remove them, you can plant them somewhere else to grow. Fall would be the most ideal time to do this.

You can simply dig up the suckers and pot them up in potting soil. When you dig them up, make sure some of the roots come with the sucker. Keep them well watered and in the shade. When you see new leaf growth, they are ready to be transplanted into the ground. This process will not hurt the mother plant. I will warn you though that the suckers will not likely look like the mother. Often, crepe myrtles will be grafted trees. This means they take a pretty, but weak, variety and graft it onto the roots of a hardier, but not as pretty, variety. The suckers actually grow from that rootstock. It will be a crepe myrtle, but will look different from the mother tree.