By Glenn Palmer –Â
Every year around this time we are contacted by homeowners and landscapers who notice bark peeling off crape myrtles and accumulating around trees. This causes great concern because for most tree species shedding bark is very bad. For crape myrtles however, it is completely normal and happens every year. Often the landscape below is strewn with strips of crape myrtle bark.
Some crape myrtle varieties seem to shed more bark and in larger pieces than others. The multi-colored patterned bark is one of the attractive features of these trees and this shedding contributes to those patterns. In any case, just rake it up and figure it is probably a sign of active growth and a healthy tree.