 Good morning. We're at the Davis Arboretum on Auburn University's campus this morning and we're going to talk a little bit about pruning crape myrtles Before we start pruning. There's a couple things we need to make sure we have one or good is some good pruning equipment a pair of loppers a pair of hand shears Maybe a small saw And we always want to make sure we have safety equipment. I've got a pair of Eyeglasses on and when you talk about eyeglasses you need to make sure their safety approved eyeglasses Not cheap plastic Eyeglasses that can cause more damage than it actually helps sometimes you want a good pair of gloves and minor mismatch But they serve the same purpose and generally you want to have a hot a hat and if possible long sleeves It's a little warm today. So I'm in short sleeves Anytime you prune any type of tree whether it's a crape myrtle a fruit tree or an ornamental plant one of the first things You want to look for are dead diseased or broken parts of the plant and we're going to prune those out first just as a general rule to keep that plant healthy and Eliminate sources of where disease or insects could enter that plant So as we look at this mature crape myrtle, you see a couple of places where limbs have died and gone back to the trunk This is a good example here. We're going to come up and prune that back Another dead one over here. We're going to take out and These pruning cuts are not necessarily shaping the tree or Aesthetics, but this is purely for the health of the tree and for maintenance of the tree Now we're going to come back and look for crossing branches water sprouts weekly attached branches to go ahead and prune those out One of the positive traits of a crape myrtle, especially the varieties that have sloughing bark is the texture change And the color change of the bark as this crape myrtle has matured It's kind of gotten a little crowded here at the base And you see a couple of pieces that have grown together and we're simply going to take one of those pieces out Open up the trunk a little bit so that it's a little more aesthetically pleasing In the fall and winter so we can see that texture change in that color change of the bark and Pruning is a lot like a haircut as long as you're not doing something unhealthy to the tree and it's aesthetically Pleasing to you. That's what you're striving for And when you get through a lot of times you'll you'll step back and look at that crape myrtle of that tree and you'll see a Branch or a piece That should have been removed that you didn't see the first time so take a second to step back walk away come back to your crape Myrtle and and look and make sure it's exactly how you want it to look