baby crepe myrtles-winter care concerns!

[lbfoss]

Okay, so I did a couple of cuttings of the neighbor's crepe myrtle, and here i have 3 nice 6" little pots with 8" cuttings doing well. I live in zone 7, so we get some cold weather. How should I handle these cuttings? should I sink the pots in dirt and mulch them or bring them into the unheated garage for the winter and water them along with my geranium pots??
I don't want to screw up and lose them now!!
thanks

[vicki]

Hi Linda,
There's probably alot more knowledgeable people here to answer this but I would repot into a larger pot, mulch, and put into a protected spot ie: out the direct sun, wind, and excessive water. Being hardy for your area they should do fine.

[lbfoss]

thanks, Vicki. I am assuming you meant out of direct sun, etc. so I will put them under the holly bush/tree where they should actually be very well protected and still get some winter light.
Now, I have been harvesting seeds from my "Tonto' and Red Rocket crepe myrtles. I need to do a search as i am sure that there was some information about how and when to try to germinate these seeds.

Any comments also would be appreciated on growing seeds of them over this winter.
thanks again, Linda

[Ann B.]

If your cuttings are well rooted, you can put them in full sun.

Seedlings will be tender for the first few months, so you will need to give them some sort of winter protection. They are deciduous and will lose all of their leaves during winter. The stems/branches need to be mature enough to withstand freezing temps.

Do you have a garage or some place like that where they can go dormant, but not freeze?

[lbfoss]

yes, I am turning my garage into a greenhouse of sorts with all the plants I want to winter over. I can put them there easily enough if that would be better than mulching them and having them out in the weather this year. I just don't want to overprotect them if they would do okay outside. They haven't grown much, I was disappointed when I realized how much everyone else's cuttings had grown, but I did take these in August, so I am just happy they rooted at all.
So into the garage they will go.

[lbfoss]

Well, the cuttings are sprouting out so winter in the garage was okay. I have already moved them out into filtered sunlight and hope to get them into the ground in a permanent spot next weekend. I bought some small crepe myrtle minis from crapemyrtle.com and I was advised that to get them to grow fast I should dig the hole the size of a gallon milk carton and fill it with regular potting soil and plant the crepe myrtles right in it. The potting soil is supposed to get them off to a roaring start and they should grow fast this summer.....We will see how this works.
I will report back.
Linda