UGLY!
Mike

Where the container sticks up is ugly; very artificial looking. The symmetric small busy look isn't so off-putting, since I don't know what the normal plant is supposed to look like.

Richard.

Are they in containers, or is that the weird black plastic edging?

I agree, people who need to create that type of landscape have control issues. I personally do not care for the look of an expanse of lawn with specimen trees lined up like soldiers, with a circle of mulch underneath. And especially when they're butchered into meat balls!

looks like living lawn art

Other than actual topiary, which I can appreciate as an actual art, I normally prefer the natural forms of plants.

That said, I'm not opposed to "enhanced natural" - using pruning to encourage good branching, limbing up when appropriate, etc.

I think of it like cosmetics and cosmetic surgery. The former is like Donatella Versace - barely recognizable as human.

The latter is more like somebody just practicing normal grooming, or a woman wearing a reasonable amount of makeup.

I guess I have no taste, because I like how they look. :

a long time ago, I arrived at a conclusion, valid only for myself.

If it gets you outside, involved in gardening, if you are paying for it, and it warms the cockles of your heart, then that is all that is required.

I for one am glad I live in a world that is filled with much variety, both of natural form and of styles of maintenance.

Are they all for me? Not in the slightest. But neither is how I may like things to look. So if this is what makes you happy, knock yourself out.

I like it. Love standards, love to control growth/ shape by pruning. Don't see that black edging is necessary

This pic shows a respectable Sweetbay Mag by the local library. One of the most desirable features is the intense fragrance of the flowers on a May/June afternoon. The pruning or "murdering" of the plants in the OP prevents them from ever flowering. They are in containers for some reason unknown to me.
I liken the trees in the OP to a castrated dog, permanently chained to a stake in the back yard.
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^^ Much more beautiful tree (grass and mulch ring still boring).

My next door neighbor has a hedge of Lilacs on the side of his garage, near our property line. He whacks it every Spring with the hedge clippers, until it's about 4 feet high, flat on top.

Years ago, I mentioned to him "Joe (not his real name), you know if you prune your Lilacs like that, you'll never have blooms." He snapped "I like 'em like that." "Oh, okay". Although it's a pretty shrub, I always thought Lilac blooms were the point, but whatever. Never said anything again.

Jumping in here. My trees have mulch rings because that is the way the builder had them planted. Would get rid of it, but afraid the yard guys would use it as an opportunity to weed wack the base of my trees.

I'm not familiar with the trees in the picture. They look ok to me. More than anything, I would guess the trimmer really isn't much of a gardener and is giving his/her best effort.

Some folks feel an overwhelming need to restrict the height of plants. Sometimes there's a valid reason for doing so (eg. formal hedging); other times it's just an applied aesthetic.

It's not my preferred look :-) I would much rather see plants take on their natural form and size and select and site them where they are allowed to do so. Pruning to enhance form is one thing.......pruning to create lollipops or boxes or or giant round balls is not in my play book. Don't even care for topiary much. I consider it a form of plant torture. LOL!

I like the natural look too, and never trim or prune my plants, shrubs or trees, except, very occasionally, to remove a dead branch. The sight of a row of lollipop trees or sculpted shrubbery fills me with despair. My vote is for UGLY!

Adella, you don't have to have rings, you can create any other shape bed, and incorporate the tree and other plants into the design. Or, create a more naturalized area (not in front of a library obviously) and get rid of grass altogether and let the tree and other plants mulch themselves, as nature intended them to do.

ETD some OT thoughts.

This post was edited by terrene on Sun, Nov 2, 14 at 18:22

"I agree, people who need to create that type of landscape have control issues."

Wow. Maybe someone is just having fun. Don't damn people so easily.

Now why would that be "damning" people, everybody's got control issues of some sort, I just don't happen to want to put my trees into bondage!

This is the black velvet Elvis painting of landscape design

This post was edited by calliope on Sun, Nov 2, 14 at 19:55

I agree Terrene, I keep thinking I want to try Bonsai, but constraining a tree is just "unnatural" to me. I like how some look dramatic in their little crappy shallow pot of torture. But I would rather save up some dough and see the real thing in their enormous, but natural state, (live oak tree) in the southern states, is of course what I'm talking about.

Question: Neither of the trees picture in this thread look like what I call a Sweet Bay Magnolia. The tree I am familiar with is found in North Carolina area, in the southeastern area. I always assumed it was called a Sweet Bay because they thrive in the soil around the Carolina bays are found in the inland regions in the area.

We have wanted to get one but have never found one in a nursery, and when we have tried to transplant wild ones they die readily. The flowers are sweet smelling, but do not hold up when picked and placed in a vase.

The ones we had that were there when the house was built were tall scrangly trees.

We had one that never had many leaves or limbs. After living in the house for about four years, we finally figured out why. The squirrels in the yard love to use the leaves and small branches in their nest,

Is this the same tree or are the ones I know the wild variety vs the nursery trees

I wish my neighbor had installed those - just like they are -- instead of letting that big honking mulberry tree grow up right at the fence line.

It's all relative!

Knuttle, the Sweetbay is Magnolia Virginiana, the Swamp Magnolia. I just planted one in my lower yard where it gets damp and stays like that a while after a good rain. It is evergreen. You may be thinking of the larger leaved (glossy leaved) Magnolia Grandiflora. I have one of those also, I got mine at Mossy oak natives nursery in Mississippi. Mail order of course. But, Unfortunately, they no longer offer them for sale there. Sometimes Ebay has plants, small cheaper ones, though. I'm sure you can find them if you are looking locally also.

poaky1 I currently have a Magnolia Grandiflora with it dishpan size flowers. Of course mine is only about four years from seed, but is about 5 feet tall and starting looking like a tree. When we planted it we found it growing at the edge of the air conditioning slab, and planted it with "What have we got to loose"

Terrene said, "lined up like soldiers.... butchered into meat balls"

Well said. That had me smiling while I read that.

Of course there can always be something worse or more unsightly. It's nice that they haven't bulldozed and paving over everything unnecessarily.

I'm glad you took the picture and shared it.

This is the entrance to a housing development near me. We've all seen meatballs like these boxwood and barberry. Don't overlook the butchered crape myrtle. Parents pass by these many times daily. School children stand by this area waiting for the bus. In time they develop a sense that this is the proper way to prune woody plants.
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Here's a respectable CM I took today in an Annapolis neighborhood. The ones in the prior pic will never look like this.
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What I'm trying to do with this thread is demonstrate the negative effects of shearing and mutilating plants. This work is done by maintenance crews. Why don't the HMOs concern themselves with issues like this rather than if someone has laundry out on the line?

In a lot of cases the designer plans a drift of shrubs, but the maintenance people treat them as individuals. In commercial landscapes there is seldom communication between the designer and the maintenance people. If the plantings are treated as a drift and let go to do it's thing the design would look a lot better. It would cost less to maintain too. Less shearing time for one. And when they shear all those shrubs, they have to rake up what they sheared. When they do that they also rake up a lot of the mulch. It can't be helped. Guess what? Now they have to replace the mulch more often than if they didn't have to rake it up so often.
To take it a step further, if the shrubs are treated as a drift and eventually they have to be cut back or sheared, the clippings can be raked into the drift, and or, what's left covered with a light mulch. Can't do that with individual shrubs.
It comes down to less work and less cost for the owner.
I should be a consultant for commercial landscapes. ;-)
Coming soon, my annual rant concerning formal landscapes.
Mike

I think the real issue is that a lot of folks like that closely sheared, manicured look. They think it looks 'neat and tidy' or whatever. It's almost like that OCD thing that keeps people from allowing different food to touch on their plates.....in the case of plants, heaven forbid they should be allowed to grow to form and actually 'touch' each other. Forget drifts.....that would send them into panic attacks!

This must be true. Otherwise you wouldn't see so much of this plant massacring going on. There are entire neighborhoods in my area where this type of misguided pruning/maintenance is de rigueur. I think it might be written into the HOA covenants. Either that or you need to be diagnosed OCD to live there.......there's no other logical explanation :-)

I think these are awesome! Love it. Couple thoughts, does not appear to be containers but some plastic edging material, these are for sure planted in the ground.

Sweetbay Magnolia is one of my favorite trees and while I prefer a more natural growing form I am always excited to see what is possible for all Trees. I think there is a place for these in our landscapes and gardens.

MURDER MOST FOUL - If only Agatha Christie could investigate this scene I saw this morning in Newport News. How could anyone be so totally clueless to butcher up these CMs like this? The sad thing is others will see this and say "We gotta git ours done too"

I don't usually get too bent out of shape about the so-called 'crape murder' issue. You don't really know the situation in every case. For example, the wrong variety was planted, or someone inherited the plants and they've gotten larger than expected and are encroaching on whatever.

Considering the expense of plant removal, stump grinding and replanting with a smaller cultivar, it's often not an affordable option for most homeowners, even though that would be the ideal scenario. And at least someone is overseeing the property. It's not overgrown with vines and weeds!

If the plantings are treated as a drift and let go to do it's thing the
design would look a lot better. It would cost less to maintain too. Less
shearing time for one. And when they shear all those shrubs, they have
to rake up what they sheared. When they do that they also rake up a lot
of the mulch. It can't be helped. Guess what? Now they have to replace
the mulch more often than if they didn't have to rake it up so often.

But less shearing, raking, and mulching time means less revenue for the landscaper.

In this area the developers are going nuts tearing down small houses and building Mcmansions. In the process, they usually raze the lot from edge to edge and put in the typical expanse of lawn with the requisite sprinkler system, peppered with specimen trees/mulch rings and well-manicured beds. I call it "landscaper's job security".

What's much more concerning to me, is the completely unsustainable input of precious resources like fossil fuel and water that are required to maintain this type of landscape. Can you believe the gov. of California had to pass a law to ban HOA's from fining residents for not watering their lawns?

http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_26196740/new-law-bans-homeowners-associations-fining-residents-burnt

Just got back from Michie Tavern near Jefferson's Monticello. The food & service were great. As for the treatment of the NS Hollies in the parking lot, you be the judge.

Sam, at this point, in this country, merely not being a weed pile of poison ivy, Ailanthus, Norway Maples, Paulownias and Celastrus counts for something in my book. In fact it counts for a lot. Or being anything more than a hell strip with nothing but scalped bermuda grass and crabgrass. (and Microstegium in the shade!) I don't really like the look of this, but it could be much worse. They could be trying to do this to black pines with a bunch of dying needles, etc. etc. At least the hollies look healthy.

Another poster is looking for "Umbrella Tree", I choose not to post on that thread. 'Manhattan' euonymus or something similar. Why don't they just put the poor thing out of its misery? What kind of person thinks that this is attractive? To the contrary, it is unnatural and unhealthy for the plant. It looks like the bark has been chewed off by the family dog?

I am a true believer that most trees/shrubs need pruning only for structural reasons or to remove damage. The ones that I grow have a natural habit which is hard to beat. I do pinch the tips out of wax myrtle to tighten them up, that's all. I wish we could abolish the mindset "get out the electric shears, the bushes need to be done".

it is MURDER! I can't stand to see trees mutilated in this way! Why don't people just plant telephone poles!?

Finally a gumdrop that I can approve of. Carpinus betulus 'Nana' at least that's what the label said. Untouched by human hands, this one needs no pruning, This is the natural habit of this form of hornbeam. Nice that it has foliage all the way to the ground and not bare, the sun hits it from all sides. Now the only question is how many years 'till it gets this size?