Kidding re divorce. More pics : Gorgeous by pool, but impractical. DH was right again, sigh. Trees now huge. Daughter insisted we needed two. Oh well, we do trim them ..just not in this pic.

Early days when my vision was so hopeful.

I dug most of mine out in the early days of lockdown. I only have a few by the street since nothing else will grow there. Almost every spring I whack them to the ground. (Im in Florida.). I feel your pain.

They can be sheared. I sheared my mother's whenever it got too wide. A former neighbor had one as a free standing shrub that she kept less than four feet tall. It all depends on how much work you want to do.

I love them as they are! I think they’d look awful turned into shrubs. You can prune back stray growth but please don’t make them into meatballs!

Yes,, shearing, but better than gardners who shaved a straight line off the tops. My effort was to top shorter and make a space between them. Perfect would be individual clumps like the ones by the pool. Not meatball shrubs! 😁 Feasible you think….And how to do this, keep them separated? And thank you all so much for your replies.