02/13/2017
Garden Tip of HORROR: Plano, 15th at Custer. Photo taken yesterday. I decided this year to try a shorter and simpler post and to put part of it in upper case. (Yeah, I'm shouting.) THERE IS NEVER JUSTIFICATION TO TOP A CRAPE MYRTLE!!! NEVER. EVER. NEVER. And I'm not even talking about anything this barbaric. Even to a lesser degree: NEVER TOP A CRAPE MYRTLE!
NONE of the following is an acceptable excuse (because there is none):
1. "My plant is hitting the eaves." Then move it or remove it entirely. There are 125 named varieties ranging in mature height from 2 to 25 feet. Choose one that fits.
2. "It makes the plant bloom better." That's preposterous. It slows the date of first bloom by 6 to 8 weeks. In the case of severe topping, the flower heads are so huge and the new shoots so limber that they cannot support them.
3. "I have to do it. The people who owned the house before me did it." Then cut the plant to the ground and train the resprouts into a handsome, natural form. I'll post a follow-up (and more positive) Garden Tip in a day or two showing how it is done.
4. "I own a landscape company, and my customers demand that it be done." Come on! You know better. No true landscaper would butcher a plant by cutting its top off. Would you do it to an oak tree? A pecan? Why a crape myrtle?
The true fact: Topping ruins the shape of a crape myrtle forever. Short of cutting it to the ground and starting over, the scars will be permanent.
Please note that I haven't used the term "crape murder." I thought that was amusing the first time that I heard it, but please don't give me credit for using it. I do not. It just breaks my heart to see this done to the finest flowering shrub/small tree in the South.
My post on this topic a year ago was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. By the time the third or fourth day had passed it was being shared with grumpy old guys who were very impolitely saying, "I'll do whatever I want to. They're my plants. That guy needs to keep his nose out of my business." And I acknowledge that fact, but I'll keep on preaching that this is an absolutely unacceptable practice that has no defense.