We bought 3 Sunburst last year. I thought they would make nice shade trees. The other day I checked them and all of them are leafing all the way up the trunk. I emailed the nursery that sold them to us and they said to 'cut them off or not depending on how low you want the branches'. I don't know if these trees do this all the time but its not what we expected! I've heard that just pulling them off would be better than snipping them off, is that true? What would be the best way to stop this from happening every year? Any advice? I also have a crabapple that I don't want to lose. It suckers really bad each year. We've tried cutting off the suckers, pulling and using a serrated knife cut them, painting (the nursery advised that) but so far nothing has worked. I really don't want it to revert. Any advice?