Serious question - why do people keep trimming crepe myrtles down to stubs?

I see it every year in my neighborhood here in Charlotte and it drives me crazy. Cutting them back that hard messes up the natural shape and makes them grow weak spindly branches. Is there some outdated gardening book still telling people to do this?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan_thompson6227d ago

Totally feel your pain on this one. It's like every spring the crepe murder crews come out and just hack everything down to nubs. I live in Greenville SC and see the same thing, neighbors chopping them like they're trimming a hedge instead of a tree. Those stubs end up growing all those skinny, whippy branches that can't even hold themselves up in a storm. It's frustrating because the natural shape is so much prettier and the trees are healthier left alone.

jason56227d ago

Oh man, you nailed it... the crepe murder thing drives me absolutely crazy around here too. I walk my dog past these houses where they've chopped beautiful trees down to these sad little knobs, and it just breaks my heart every time. The worst part is people think they're helping the tree when they're really just making it weaker and uglier in the long run. Those skinny branches that shoot up after a butchering are just asking to snap in a good thunderstorm too. It takes years for a crepe myrtle to recover from that kind of hack job, and by then most folks have already moved on to the next victim.