Short answer to your heading is ’no’. They are clearly not dead so they haven't been killed. But the ‘pruning’ is horrible. In fact it isn't pruning. It’s hacking. If you can post close ups people can id your shrubs and explain how to prune then. If you give your location they can tell you when that should be done.

Although mid fall is not a recommended time of year for pruning in most cases, sometimes needs must :-) And rarely does pruning - even a severe pruning - kill anything.

I'm not sure what your photos are trying to illustrate but I don't really see any trees that have been whacked in half........only some shrubs of various sizes that look to have been trimmed and tidied up. Photos are not distinct enough to determine exactly what the shrubs might be nor how careful the pruning may have been (does look a tad rough) but the shrubs should flush out properly in spring. Whatever clean up was done looks perfectly adequate as well.

I think you are stressing unnecessarily :-)

Well it's only been like an hour since they left, so the trees won't die that fast.  But yeah, my thoughts were the same… that this was basically a hack job.  Think they'll look normal again next season?  I'm in Philly suburbs.Our plan ultimately is to redo the entire landscape, and get rid of most of the gardens. But that will probably not be for a bit, because it's doing to be an expensive endeavor.  I just wanted  something that looked decent until then.

Gardengal48, i don't have before and after photos. When i say they were cut in half, i mean to they were literally cut down to about half the height they were this morning.  Some more so than others. It's really the trees that got it the worst, not really the bushes. It's evident by the 1-1.5" diameter branches chopped off at the tops.

There are more bad pruners in this world than there are skilled ones!! But trees and shrubs get hacked back all the time, at the wrong time of year and with what appears to be outright brutality yet they all seem to survive perfectly well. They will be fine.

Well that's good news, Gardengal. But then my next question is: How many seasons am I going to look like a fool who hired a terrible landscaper? ὠ6

By next spring they may not even be noticeable as having been pruned.

I can definitely live with that

As has been said, you can not tell exactly how they should have been trimmed with out knowing what they are.

As for the time for trimming, you should trim so that you do not cut off the buds for next years growth. When that is depends on the type of plant, bush, or tree. My father said you should trim when your knife was sharp, I honor that with the exceptions that i mentioned previous.

You said that they had been cut in half. seeing some in relation to the roof line of your house, it would indicate that they higher than the roof. This means that they could damage the roof and gutters on the house.

Working on this assumption, there is no way that could be brought back to the way they should have been kept, with out them looking a little hacked. Don't stress the way they look now, enjoy the way the roof and gutters have been protected and the way the they look next spring when they are in leaf and bloom.

PS my ligustrum current look worse than your bushes. I personally committed the "crime". However next spring when they are in leaf, you will ever know what I did to them. Next fall I will have to cut several more bushels from them to find our house.

I finally remembered the name of the tree! Crape Myrtle!  This was conveyed to me independently by both an interior designer and my mom who used to be a landscape designer.  These things are apparently a bit rare to see in this climate. My mom was saying this weekend that they typically favor warmer climates.  I did also ask my mom's opinion on the landscaper's job, which she thought it looked pretty hacked up too. She's getting up there in age though and has a hard time seeing photos on a phone, so I wasnt sure how well I could even show her the current status of these trees anyway. My parents live 4 hours away, so they cant just stop by and look at them

Not a good job but I think they’ll be fine. Sometimes, maybe not this time, they come back better for it. It did in my yard when my gardener gave my trees a “buzz cut” last winter.

I'm reading this whole thread and thinking every last cut in half tree is a Crepe Myrtle, but then came Philly? But yes, they are Crepe Myrtle! This is what is called 'Crepe Murder' by many. It is a totally common way these get trimmed all over the south. No they are not dead. They will be fine. Living in Philly is more likely to kill them.

I see absolutely nothing in your pictures that alarms me about the work that was done. It's what I do for a living. Just not that way.

Christopher C, interesting. So for this type of tree, this type of pruning is appropriate? It's odd the landscaper initially said he couldn't cut them back though. Hopefully they fair well in this climate. It's in the 50s now, but it could range from low 30s up to 80 all the way to December around here. December didn't used to get that warm, and by no means is that an average temp, but we sometimes get wild temp swings. February and march are typically in the 30s-40s pretty steadily and can get into single digits.

That type of pruning is common practice with Crepe Myrtle. It puts the flowers lower down. Appropriate is debatable. Cutting them now you just lose any fall color they may get. It doesn't matter to the plant doing it now or late winter.

It is the wild swings with hard spring freezes after they have broken dormancy in a warm spell that can take them out in Philly.

Though it hasn't happened in years, just plain cold can take them out. Which is why I never saw them when I lived there.

Well, my 2 cents is you're really dealing with 'ugly pruning' because what happened in the first place was 'bad landscaping'. Especially the crape myrtle that was blocking a window, forcing it to be 'crape murdered' as it is called. Unless there was some compelling reason to have it there, would probably make more sense to remove the crape myrtle and plant something naturally low growing. Likewise the evergreen on the corner looks to be something that wants to grow quite large, but has been crowded into a corner on the belief that some Americans have that buildings need 'foundation' shrubs, as though to hold them to the Earth and anchor them from flying into outer space lol. So it will always need yearly pruning (labor intensive) or twice decade hacking (makes it look ugly for a while). Would have been better to just plant something smaller growing.

Specifically, looking at picture #2, to the left there's some low tight growing thing like a Buxus or Ilex crenata. Then, for the corner, something larger and more upright has been planted. This is not actually a convention of how colonial buildings - which the front of yours, at least, appears to be a replica of - are landscaped. It would have made more sense, if one were "foundation planting" at all, to just put another compact bun in the corner.

FWIW the hardier crape myrtles hybridized by the National Arboretum are probably fully hardy in the inner suburbs of Philadelphia, but, doesn't really matter when the tree isn't where it should be in the first place.

Davidrt28, the previous homeowner was actually originally from Hong Kong, so not really fitting that American stereotype I suppose ha ha.  Nevertheless, I couldn't tell you why she did what she did for anything out there. The entire back garden is just a royal pain and causes stormwater management issues due to a multi-tier paver patio in the gardens with absolutely no drainage provided.  That barren crepe is in the rear and we have water issues in the basement there. Grading is an issue, possibly downspouts too. But i fear tree roots are also causing problems, so iwant these things gone fairly soon anyway. If they cannot be relocated, iguess ill be chopping them down.

Well, actually, as a first generation immigrant, presumably, they might have felt more pressure to 'go with the flow' and landscape the way everyone else was landscaping in the neighborhood. For all I know, many HOAs across this land probably require 'foundation shrubs'. And thank goodness for that, so we don't have any terrifying instances of unfounded houses flying off into space.

I struggle to believe you have tree root issues, unless you started with a bad foundation. Figure out what you have and whether it's known for root problems. We have a stone foundation and far bigger trees right next to our foundation.

My experience with landscapers is that no matter how knowledgeable the owner is, they will send over a team to mow and whack which has neither the time nor the knowledge to figure out what they are doing. My lawn and gardens are much better looking now that we do them ourselves.

It was a production build from 1994, so no doubt the builder put some of those shrubs in themselves.  There's definitely some of the typical "foliage" that you see in cookie cutter neighborhoods ha ha.  Seeing as how neither my wife nor I are really into gardens, we just want it all gone so we have a bigger lawn.  I also need to fix the grading and drainage issues and want to build a deck (I'm a civil engineer, so that's all i care about lol).  We'll do our own little small garden later. Problem is that the scale of the work is so large that its gonna cost a fortune and require a permit (and my township is anal about permits).  So im just tryin to not look like a bum until that point ha ha.

Sigrid, thats unfortunate to hear. The owner was always out doing the cutting of the lawn, so i assumed he'd be out gardening too. I didn't even look outside, because i assumed he'd knock on the door.  So i don't even know if he was there or if it was even his company at all honestly.  I was just throwing out the idea of root issues because the trees are very close to the foundation walls.  But i know nothing about how big or deep those roots are.  The area needs regrading, and we have downspouts with no obvious daylight location.  So who knows what is causing the water at this point.  Its only minor water issues anyway and some mold. It's an unfinished basement.  I dont know how long the mold has been growing...could have been growing for 30 years!

@Ryan Fehr If you downspouts have no obvious daylight they may be draining into underground pipes. Underground pipes are often perforated, so that the water drains out along the path of the pipe as well as at the outlet. Since you have water issues you either don't have pipes or they are clogged or some dufus of a contractor or homeowner found a pipe in their way while digging in the middle of the yard for something else, and decided to just cut it. Which blocked it, and backed water up into the basement. Guess how I know about this scenario. It's also possible that the outlet has been blocked by debris or overgrowth.

I'd start by figuring out if your downspouts do or once connected to underground pipes. It might still be an expensive fix, but at least you'll know.

Margaret, yeah I know I need to investigate the downspouts. It's just one of a million things on my to-do list ha ha. The ones in the rear definitely do not daylight anywhere; I'm certain of that. The only possible location they could is if they were ran all the way to the roadway inlets off of the side yard, but that's illegal in my municipality and economically infeasible anyway.  I'm sure they either run to perforated pipe or a dry well underground.  I need to run a hose down them to see if theyre clogged, which i assume they must be if I have water issues.  Probably best just to run new lines and find a good place to daylight them.  I dont like the underground systems because they inevitably clog up.

Hi Ryan, I recommend getting a certified arborist out next Spring to walk your yard with you to identify everything, identify issues (disease/pest etc.), and explain
maintenance/care of each thing. Here in Boston that cost me $60 for one hour and I learned sooooo much. I was then able to Google and treat many things myself over the next month (alternative to hiring him to do it for 3K 🤪) Landscapers/mow & blow aren’t the best for this. Use them for things like leaf cleanup and mulch delivery/spreading. Good luck and enjoy your new home. It’s a learning curve for everyone.

P.S. make a map before he comes and take notes.

A “Master Gardener” could also do this service.

The Name That Plant Forum here can probably id all your plants if you post clear close ups. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/name-that-plant