Myrtle Beach Notebook | Don’t commit Crape Murder

Between Arbor Day and Christmas, there’s quite a focus on trees in December.

This is the time when well-meaning people do something that should never be done: They commit Crape Murder.

You know what it looks like. You see them everywhere around the Grand Strand, those pitiful Dr. Seussian-looking trunks with their balls of spiky bare branches on top.

But if you want healthy, voluminously blooming trees covered with red, purple, white or pink flowers, stop cutting the trees’ heads off.

“It comes up every year,” said Richard Kirby, Myrtle Beach’s parks superintendent. “People think you’re supposed to top crape myrtle trees, but that’s exactly the wrong thing to do.”

Because crape myrtles only release their colorful blooms each summer on the new growth from the same year, Kirby said, people often think if they cut back the old growth, the tree will fill up with new limbs and blooms.

But cutting back all the limbs chops off the thousands of tips where new growth happens. Clemson researchers have studied topped crape myrtles -- they often lose 50 percent or better of their leafy branches -- and have shown that trees allowed to grow naturally will bloom bigger and better than those that have to focus on replacing the lost limbs and foliage.

Topped or improperly pruned trees are stressed, which makes them more susceptible to powdery mildew, Clemson said, and their structures can be compromised, making them more likely to fail in a wind storm.

What happens each year, Kirby said, is that people see other people improperly pruning the crape myrtles, and they think that’s how it should be done, so they do it too.

“Trees really only need to be pruned to correct broken limbs or to thin them out a bit. Trees should never be topped,” Kirby said.

With Arbor Day being celebrated this week, Kirby said he thought it was a good time to give people the 411 on crape myrtles.

Clemson advises the following:

• Remove “suckers” from around the base of the tree.

• If you want a tree-like crape myrtle, trim limbs from the bottom of the trunk, exposing the trunk and the branching character.

• Be careful with the cuts, so you don’t rip the tree’s bark.

• Thin the branching canopy by removing crowded or crossed branches.

• Let it grow.

To see Clemson’s slide show demonstrating the differences between pruned and unpruned crape myrtles and the proper limb-cutting techniques, visit www.clemson.edu/extension/horticulture/landscape_ornamentals/crapemyrtle/culture/pruning_powerpoint.html, where you can also find plenty of other information on crape myrtles.

Follow the money

Wednesday morning, Myrtle Beach’s Accommodations Tax Committee will hold its final round of discussions applicants’ $1.7 million in requests and make recommendations for grants.

This year, as it does every year, the city will sweep all of the accommodations tax revenue that is returned by the state into its general fund to pay for the city’s enhanced police and fire services, beach renourishment, water-quality testing and other services to support the millions of visitors who come here each year.

The City Council then parcels out grants from its general fund to many of the groups that apply for funds for tourism-related events and programs.

Michael Price, budget and evaluation analyst for the city, said last year, the council members chose to give out $756,000, an increase over past grant totals that were usually between $625,000 and $700,000.

He said the budget department tries to get this round of funding requests out of the way in February or March so that when the council goes to its budget retreat in April, this topic is already settled.

This year, there are some new applicants among the 25 or so regulars.

New requests come from:

• Atlantic Stage theater group, asking for $24,000 to “promote Myrtle Beach through out-of-state advertising and marketing to increase visitors currently attending Atlantic Stage theatre productions and encourage them to see and recognize Myrtle Beach as a cultural destination;”

• Coast Futbol Alliance, requesting $170,635 “to promote Myrtle Beach as one of the premier destinations for youth soccer tournament events in the country, producing economic impact for the city during non peak-season months;”

• Coastal Youth Ballet Theatre, asking for $24,000. This group has requested money through the city’s outside-agency grants, but those are for groups that perform social services, like CASA, Rape Crisis Center, Community Kitchen and the Boys & Girls Club. The ballet group says it wants to promote “cultural enrichment of the Grand Strand area through dance education and training, and conduct community outreach programs in area schools to acquaint children about performing arts, dance in particular;”

• Country Thunder, requesting $200,000 “to promote, produce and manage a Country Music Festival in Myrtle Beach for the first weekend in May 2012.” Price said Country Thunder produces successful country music festivals in other states, featuring performers like Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, and now want to bring such an event to the former Myrtle Beach Mall site.

• Gold Key Jazz Society, asking for $150,000 to “educate, entertain and promote the cultural arts experience of jazz to a very diverse people from many walks of life.” Like the ballet group, the jazz group had been asking for social-services money, and the city recommended applying for this source of funds, instead.

• Impact Ministries, asking for $24,000 to recruit up to 1,000 mission-team volunteers for such projects as Myrtle Beach resort day camps, multi-housing day camps, beach visitor outreach, and owner-occupied housing rehabilitation. Impact Ministries is the group that partnered with the city earlier this year for a complete rebuilding of a house on Carver Street that was nearly uninhabitable it was so run down.

Other requests include:

• Baseball at the Beach Tournament | $60,000

• Beach Ball Classic Tournament | $60,000

• Children’s Museum of South Carolina | $90,000

• Coastal Uncorked | $80,000

• Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum | $120,000

• MB Golf Holiday | $40,000

• Ocean Front Merchants Association | $140,000

• First Tee of Myrtle Beach | $28,000

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the conference room at the City Services Building, 921 N. Oak St., and is, of course, open to the public.