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I’ll start by saying that this column has nothing to do with growing pains like it mistakenly says above my byline––but it does have to do with growth. And since we’re heading into another gardening season, I decided to run with this: 

Whenever I’m in the car with my mom, and we pass a crape myrtle tree, she raves about how much she loves them. I would make a bet that every single spring AND fall, she finds a new spot in the yard she wants to plant one (or three). 

Recently, she planted six. . . 

And she’s very particular about how they grow. Here’s the master tip no one seems to know: You don’t just cut the trees down every season and leave stubs coming out of the ground. You trim the branches up and up so they thicken and continue growing taller. 

Well, therein lies the issue. 

For pretty much every summer I can remember, she and I have been driving into the Landrum Ingles parking lot, and there we would go: 

“Ugh, I can’t even look at them. I’m not even going to bring it up. But how can I not bring it up? Look at them. How can life grow out of that?”

The entrances to Ingles, lined with crape myrtles, were cut down to nothing for several years in a row, and finally, the day came a few summers ago when Mom approached Ingles management. 

She walked up to one of the store managers and explained that the landscapers needed to stop cutting down the trees and start “trimming them up.”

“Do I need to have a talk with them?” she’d say. “Because I will. I see them out there cutting them down and I just can’t handle it.” 

With a laugh, a nod, and tilt of his head, the manager said something like, “I’ll keep that in mind.” 

Now, a couple summers later, the trees are looking better than ever. Taller. Thicker. Turns out management did “keep that in mind”. . .

Every time Mom and I drive into the Ingles parking lot, she says now, “I’m not even going to mention it this time. But look at them. I did that. Ingles can thank me for their pretty crape myrtles.”
Just the other day, she and I were in produce when Mom caught a rolling head of cabbage that one of the managers dropped. 

She said to him, “Those trees are looking mighty fine out there.”

“Oh, I know they are.” 

“You’re welcome.” 

“I guess I should thank you.”

They were both kidding, but the moral of the story is for crape myrtle owners, and that is: hey, stop cutting down and start trimming up!