Crepe vs. Crape Myrtles

Some of the most beautiful plants are tall tree/shrub/bush things known as Crepe Myrtles.  When properly cared for, they grow tall and strong, putting on flowers in early spring that sometimes last most of the year; these are the "Crepe Myrtles".  When mistreated and butchered, hacked off at five or six feet above the ground, they resemble small crippled palm trees with spindly limbs that flower once a year, if at all; these are known as the "crape myrtles", and it rhymes with 'happy', and you can be sure the myrtles that are hacked down to a nub each spring are NOT happy.  Don't hack them down to the trunk!

Just gently trim the myrtles to a tall, graceful figure, and don't even think about sawing them off at a five-foot level each spring.  You don't want crappy myrtles!