My crape myrtle always has leaves and new starts everywhere, not like the nice ones I see.
Do I need to trim this often or are mine different type? The trunks of mine always have new branches and leaves, not the nice bare trunk?

Hi SD... welcome to the forum!

It's hard to visualize "not like the nice ones I see" but I am guessing they are more tree-like than bush-like. Crapes will grow whichever way you want to prune them.

Once you start to prune them so they grow up, like trees, then you will always have to deal with removing new growth 'leaders' where you trimmed before. As each tree gets older, the lower areas where you cut gradually stop doing this and the newer areas start. It won't hurt them to do it any time.

It's really up to you what you want to achieve.

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...Bill