I'm seeing the same thing in far NW Dallas County. It's a shame - but I understand why it happens. I've had several of my crapes grow far taller than what was listed on the tag when I bought them. I've moved or removed them, but it's pretty disconcerting to grow one for several years only to find out it's going to get too big for where it is. Who wants to start all over again!? Wish those tags were more accurate!

When I see this done in public places, or on private yards in neighborhoods, I just try to think of it as more of a formal garden procedure such as in a Japanese garden where everything is pruned and shaped in a very precise and stately manner. Plus I guess the landscapers want it to appear they are doing their job as sometimes there are dead branches and old flower stems showing and it takes a while for the new foliage to overtake them.

I once visited a large public garden, I think it was in the DFW area, but it could have been in Oregon. Anyway among other wonderful things there was a beautiful Japanese garden where everything was neatly trimmed and shaped. Right next to it was an area with the same plants, but they had been left to grow in their natural shapes. It was hard to say which was the most beautiful as each had their special charm.

I like the natural graceful shapes of branches to be left alone, but it seems there are styles of gardening for everybody.

Happy gardening!

I'm seeing a lot of it too. It baffles me that people continue to do this because of bad info being thrown around by idiots. If anyone have been to Dallas Arboretum, that's the WAY to grow them.

I wish they would just remember that crape myrtle is a TREE, and cannot be made into a SHRUB.

It seems like I've seen more of it this year, too.

odd...

because not only has there been a lot of info disbursed about the foolishness of it, but you'd think a difficult economy would make the owners of commercial properties become more conservative about the amount of money they shell out to butchers to ruin their landscape trees...

UGH! I just passed a house TODAY, after I sent this message, that has (had) a row of beautiful crapes that have been growing beautifully for at least 15 years --- that I've seen. ----CHOPPED--- All that remains are thick stubs. I'm so frustrated --- This year they will have those awful straight branches that look like porcupines --- MAN --- what is going on!!!! Stop the Madness!!!

Oh man - I once lived in a duplex with a massive crepe myrtle out front that was technically on my side, though it was certainly the focal point of the landscaping for both sides. One day I came out to find it CHOPPED. My neighbor had just had some guys trim up her bushes, and she seemed pleased with herself when I asked her (trying to stay calm and friendly) if she'd had them do that. "Oh yes!" she cheerfully answered, oblivious to my foaming at the mouth. "It'll bloom so nicely next year!"

I am so proud that I did not strangle her.

Many years ago, I think it was the late 70's, before I was a garden nut, I bought 4 crepe myrtles & 3 Queen Elizabeth roses & planted them in the strip between the sidewalk & the street (a radical thing to do at the time!) at the house where I lived.

I used to go by that house & smile to see my plants doing well.

Even after the roses (grafted no doubt) disappeared, I smiled at the crepes.

until last year, when someone cut them down to 4'high *trunks*.

don't plan on going by there again, can't bear to see the destruction.

& they were carefree, flowering *trees*, freebie for the homeowner, *assets* to the property.

hope he needs to sell & those stubs cost him a chunk of equity.

Yep, I think mine are the only ones I've seen that haven't been chopped! A landscaper buddy told me only prune branches smaller than your little pinky. That sound right to y'all?

When it comes to pruning remember the ones that come on straight up and resemble a fishing pole should be removed. These are water sprouts and will never amount to much.

I drove past my old house in The Colony this week and was disheartened to see the 15 foot Natchez murdered. They also completely took out the 30 foot bald cypress that shaded the west facing back yard so well. Ah, I've got to stop driving by that house.

Pam

May I be the fly in the ointment? There are some people who prefer the natural form of the Crape Myrtle, while there are people, myself included, who prefer the large heavy blooms, only achieved by pruning. In our town there are some very old Crapes, with trunks 12" in diameter or more. They are attractive trees, but their bloom is so small and scant that you can barely see them. It's as if they just get a slight pink hue for a short time each summer. If you prefer this 'natural form', then by all means, allow yours to grow this way, but no need to get exasperated at people who prefer the huge blooms of a pruned Crape Myrtle.
Jim

too add my two cents Crape Myrtles need good air circulation ,they are prone to fungal problems.so a pruning yearly is advised.

Pruning for air circulation is achieved by thinning out the interior branches & the branches that cross & rub against each other (I do it, or at least check to see if it needs to be done, every year), not by amputating limbs.

If your crepes aren't blooming well, you might check to be sure the tree isn't buried too deeply in the ground.

Even if it was planted at the right depth initially (with the root flare exposed), the addition of mulch & compost sometimes raises the level of the soil, putting the tree under stress.

Yes, but the school next door planted a row of them last year. They were just getting full and beautiful. Starting to bud out. Walked the dogs past & the poor things have been chopped to about 4' tall, shorter than me! They look terrible! They spent a fortune to put in HUGE crapes-they were at least 10' tall & then the very next year whacked them all to heck. They were absolutely fabulous last year with tons of flowers.
Tally HO!

Some years crapes bloom great - some years not so great. Another thing to do if the blooms are puny over time is to give the tree a shot of superphosphate in late winter/early spring - which will aid in flower production. Most trees are planted in grass, and grass ferts are mostly high on nitrogen - not so high in phosphate. It has worked for me anyway, so it's always worth a try, and far batter than the "alternative".

I can't tell you how much this irks me to see crape myrtles trimmed so harshly. My garden club recently had a booth at the city's Arbor Day celebration and we had copies of an article by Greg Grant - available on the internet - about crape murder. A man walked up and took one of the articles and then turned around and told us that he actually likes the look of the way they are pruned back to the big trunks. We tried to explain how bad this is for the crape myrtles, but he insisted that by pruning them back to the trunks, "they look like trees." I really wanted to say, "Well, stupid, they are trees and if you leave them alone and allow they to grow properly, they will look like real trees." I mean, how many of us in our right minds would want to top any tree like people do to the crape myrtles?! What is it going to take before people realize that just because they see some dummy pruning crape myrtles like that, doesn't mean it is the right thing to do. As many of our mothers told us, "If your friend jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?"

I do understand your point of view, but from driving around Houston and the surrounding area, I would say my point of view is the most prevalent. We're not all dummies, we actually prefer them that way. It would be interesting to know if you also get upset when you see a pear tree that has been espaliered, or a juniper that is trimmed in a spiral, or an Indian Hawthorn that is trained into a standard, or a tomato growing out of the bottom of a five gallon bucket? This is what keeps gardening interesting, being able to grow your plants the way want.
Jim

Whoever said that large untrimmed bushes have small flowers is mistaken. This Crep has a trunk that I cannot put my arms around and is much taller than my house and it blooms profusely with large flowers

Jim,
You make a valid point, and I respect it. I love the trunk and it's peeling bark and variations in color which I see more of during dormancy. You have to admit that the dormant silhouette looks nicer on a natural tree. We do all have our own preferences though.

Pam

I have wondered if the excessive trimming has anything to do with the bugs that are now infesting crepe myrtles. Mine are untrimmed and have no sign of those bugs. Could be my area too though.

I don't like to see living things thwarted or manipulated;
I like to see them at their natural, healthy best.

Espaliered & pollarded trees make me flinch;
topiary & bonsai not only look funny to me, they make me wonder why someone spent all that time doing it;
I never saw an Indian hawthorne made into a tree standard, but I don't like the looks of tree roses (long skinny legs with a mop on the top);
& a plant growing "upside down" looks odd but doesn't bother me.

In a similar vein, it seems to me that roses don't want to be blue, daylilies don't want to be pink, & animals don't want to be white.

I like red roses, orange daylilies, tabby cats, golden tigers, & wolf-colored dogs.

They're beautiful the way nature made them, & the ones that have been made into something else for the amusement of human beings are usually much less healthy & much less robust.

I do recognize that some genetic manipulation arose out of need (herding dogs, for instance), but living things deserve admiration for their beauty just the way they are.

I have enough trees to prune without bothering the crapes. Between the hackberries, pecan and oleander trying to take over the world and the electrical lines I'm always trimming! And I'm too lazy/busy/uncaring to train anything, just ask my dogs.
Tally HO!

I love crapes. And hate topped ones. I think it looks unnatural and odd for there to be a stick with a ponytail of branches out of the top. Growing up, we had the most beautiful white one...we only pruned crossing or low branches...and spent buds. It had huge flowers....and it looked like summer snow when they fell...had a scent, too, if I remember correctly.

To each his own, I suppose, but I cringe when they are topped and wonder why they didn't just plant a shorter plant that blooms instead.

funny story:

One summer day when I was at the vet clinic, I realized the tech & the receptionist were sort of...
looking at me.

Finally the receptionist said,
"Sylvia, do you have a lot of bird feeders out?"

"Nah, just one, a nice big one."

"uh. well. There's bird doodie in your hair."

It was white crepe myrtle blossoms that had shaken off the tree when I walked by!

I had to commit Crepe Murder this year, and it was b/c of the bugs. It had become infested w/lace bugs and I couldn't get rid of the infestation. I tried several different methods, but nothing worked. The tree looked horrible, so I trimmed it way back and it looks really good now. The new growth looks very healthy and hopefully I can keep them that way!
I'm guilty, but I had no other choice... :(

Jim, if you top your crapes out of taste, then I will defer to the fact that they are your trees. However, I do not think most of the hard-pruned ones are done out of taste. I think most of them are done as part of the 'package' of hired landscaping. The homeowner defers to the yard groomers because they are the 'professionals'. That and the fact that highway medians are not usually groomed to anyone's taste. I think it is just done that way because the person with the chopper was told it is supposed to be that way, so they do it, without questioning. That is when it bugs the crap out of me.

I was always told that because they were the "lilac of the South" that some idiot had started to prune them like real lilacs up North.

Sawing off the tops of the trees results in death from fungal infection eventually--at least it always does in Houston.

Sad thing is, a tree can have numerous smart owners and trimmers for decades, and all it takes is one helpful neighbor, new idiot owner, or yard crew with a saw, and the tree is ruined forever.

I have 2 beautiful crape myrtle in my front yard that are about 4 years old and about 8 feet tall. Recently, my lawn care people chopped off their heads to about 4 feet tall out of the blue and without my permission. I am heart-broken over it. My beautiful trees are now just ugly bare sticks that I have to see everytime I come home.
I have 3 questions for the forum. 1) Will they ever grow back to their natural beautiful shape once they had their heads chopped off? 2) Are there anything I can do to improve their appearance? Ocdgardner 8 mentioned that young branched can be repair/restore, where can I find information on the reparation process? 3) If I have them cut down to the ground, how long will it take for them to grow back with main branches that are 2 inches in diameter and about 8 feet tall?

First off, sorry to hear about your situation!

I don't profess to be an expert on Crepes, but here's what I'd do:

1-Fire your landscaper and find a more knowledgeable one.

2-Cut the stubs back to the ground and start over.

Someone stop me if I'm wrong, but once crepe murder is committed, they won't go back to their natural form. If you cut the stubs to the ground, new suckers will come up and you get to start from scratch.

I can't say how long it will take for them to regain their former size, probably 4-5 years I'd guess?

ocd...I think it's the landscaping / lawn mowing crews. I've seen them in the myrtles on Davis street.

I have a few...of course. I used to thin out the branches that were narrower than a pencil, last year I didn't get around to it, and this year I forgot. But, the trees look like trees with several main branches. I find the trunks on myrtles to be so elegant in the winter that I actually like when a branch crosses another and unites. Only have one that will do that, but looking forward to it.

c

Okay. I admit it. I did crape murder this year. The tree was planted next to the house, and was 5 years old and 12 foot when I inherited it. I faithfully pruned suckers and watched for overhang for the last 4 years - but grew increasingly frustrated with my next door crossvine climbing the tree, no matter how closely I watched and pulled tendrils. A month ago, I went out to assess the damage, and despite pruning and pulling, could not get the cursed vine out of the tree - and the top of the tree was all little tiny branches, so in a wild moment I grabbed the big shears and - yes - lopped off all the branches to 8 feet from about 12-13 feet, eliminating that pesky crossvine problem. I barely held myself back from cutting the crossvine back to the ground, but a cold front kept me under control. Will I do it next year? No - but now my crape looks like everyone else's in the neighborhood, I was the lone holdout..... it should never have been planted that close to the house, but I love the blooms too much to completely take it out....

terry

Moms giant crape went over in Ike. It was huge and had never been pruned. Bloomed very heavily most of the year and provided great shade.

I went to a talk at the home show this weekend with a tree expert. He was showing slides from China and their levees (to protect from typhoons) and there were a lot of crape myrtles planted. Everyone had been murdered. So it's a world-wide thing.
Tally HO!!

If someone chooses to chop and shape a crape for a necassary reason than I respect the need. It is the mis-information and ignorance of the chopping of crapes that as a horticulturist is irksome to me. There are multiple reasons why you shouldn't chop crapes and only a few for chopping your crapes. I still see most of this overdone and misunderstood practice done from ignorance instead of for sound horticultural needs.
You can't stop a practice by being mad about and keeping it to yourself. This is why there has been so much written about it over the last several years to inform and dispel the myths of this practice. Yes it is a world-wide practice and I accept that I can only change by kindly informing folks why it is not a sound practice and to accept that after that it is there choice to do as they feel is right for them. Ignorance of the laws of nature doesn't put you in jail. Ignorance of the laws of man well that can get you 5-10.
Just my two-pennies worth Happy Growing Y'all David