Norfolk Master Gardeners
830 Southampton Ave., Ste 2069
Norfolk, Virginia 23510-1045
Crape Myrtle Pruning with ODU Freshman
On August 26th, Norfolk Master Gardeners again served to partner with ODU for its Freshman Service Experience day.
The Freshman Service Experience (FSE) is designed to give new students at Old Dominion University the chance to move in early, then on their first full day as a Monarch they contribute to the Hampton Roads community doing a service project with other students and an upperclassman leader.
This year there were only five ODU participants, along with a large group of NMGs. We introduced ourselves and learned a bit about the girls – all from Virginia localities. Then we split up on the nearby streets, armed with loppers, pruning saws, eye protection, and highly florescent yellow vests.
Crystal, a new ODU student from Suffolk, helped tackle this troublesome set of trees.
On 46th St. we encountered “a tree” sprouting a wide variety of different foliage. There were indeed a few sprigs of crape myrtle peeking out…along with suckers from pecan, water oak, and mulberry, to name just what we recognized. After some cleanup, it turned into a little stand of trees, with the brush cleared from the roadway. Ginny Alberts also carefully clipped the ivy that was growing up each trunk.
On 45th St. the going was easier, with several small crape myrtle trees that must receive a little regular TLC from the property owner. There were two larger crape myrtles though that had been badly pruned over time. There were a lot of sprouts growing from stumpy spots all up these tree trunks. The trunks were black with sooty mold, a product of honeydew, and there was plenty of crape myrtle bark scale – small white scale insects that show up clearly against the unnaturally dark bark.
We did what we could, nipping off the suckers along the bottom and the brushy growths higher up, as high as we could reach. In doing so, we found Nature fighting back: there was ladybug larvae in various stages all over the lower reaches of both trees!
After two hours of hard work in the heat, the crape myrtle crews reported a total of 50 trees that had been pruned! Great work, from the largest to the smallest helpers.
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