Crepe Myrtle

When we bought our house, it came with a badly-overgrown crepe myrtle tree at the edge of the front yard.

One of the first things we did was trim the tree and pull out all the Spanish Moss and Ball Moss I could reach. It had not been trimmed in so long that it was way too tall to get all the air plants out, but it started blooming again so we decided to wait until February to cut it back to a better height. 

However, as the rains made our neighbors' trees flourish, our tree started going downhill. The Spanish Moss and Ball Moss were multiplying like crazy, taking over. Only the edges of the branches had green leaves; everything else was dead and filled with moss.

Rather than just let the tree die, we decided to cut it down to a manageable size now. For a few weeks it looked like a big dead stump. Fortunately crepe myrtles love to re-sprout from branch cuts, so a few weeks later it started to come back. 

I don't know if this new growth will make it through the winter, but the tree is healthy enough that come spring,it will be lovely!