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Crepe murder...all over Houston
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Posted by
ghostlyvision 8b/9a (
My Page) on
Wed, Jan 30, 13 at 8:47
| (I usually spell it 'crape' but the author spelled it with an 'e'). Good article on the why-nots of topping crapes. We have quite a few large old ones in our near-Houston neighborhood that are just beautiful, obviously never having been topped, but apparently some in the vicinity haven't gotten the message. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Crepe murder...all over Houston
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| Send that lady pictures of the oaks that eahamel saw! |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| I lived in the Houston area more than a decade ago, and crepe murder was rife then (along with a minority of beautiful full-sized trees with abundant blooms). I love how the author of the linked article finds a way to blame Those Darn Yankees for topping these trees: "Perhaps it filtered down from "up nawth" where they have such short growing periods, they do very severe pruning to produce flowers faster" Sorry, but I've never seen "crepe murder" in northern states. We can grow crepes, but they're usually shrubs or small trees that rarely get big enough for people to even think about the "need" for topping them (I have half a dozen crepes that die back close to the ground in average to severe winters, and have a couple or more feet or wood survive in mild ones. The only pruning necessary is to remove dead wood). |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| I love this writer! She and the other Chronicle gardening writer, Kathy Huber, have been on a "crepe murder" rant for years. Doesn't seem to be doing any good. Most crepes grown on commercial property get butchered like this every year. I've seen some die from that treatment. They will eventually because of the knots that form where those cuts are made. She's also right about not planting trees under power lines - something I see all over the city. A lot have been cut into "V" shapes with the power lines running through them. Another "bad landscaping idea" subject. Ghostly, I've attached a pic of some live oaks I saw yeaterday at an apartment complex in Sharpstown. Ye gods! |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| I think that perhaps the Southern writers don't understand the 'pruning' that Mother Nature does in winter...like taking stuff right down to the ground! |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| I disagree with Brenda saying that it's yankee transplants doing this to the crepes. It's bad landscapers, and it's been going on for years and years here. I wonder if this travesty goes on in other southern cities. |
RE: Crape murder...all over Houston
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| It goes on everywhere that crape myrtles are grown and produce trunks that would otherwise survive the winter, from what I've seen. |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| I agree with Brandon. It's commonly called crepe murder for a reason. |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| I just planted several in my yard this past year, and none of them will ever be pruned that way. |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| I caught that accusation in the article of Yanks too, being from Ohio myself and having family scattered all over the northeast. lol Eahamel - I just can't believe those poor live oaks, what in the world were those trimmers thinking?! I have never seen living live oaks looking like that in the 25 or so years I've lived in this area. There has been a whole lot of hard trimming (and tree removal) going on close by lately, maybe the trees that now for certain didn't survive the drought are being pruned out, I don't know, but some aggressive cutting has been going on in this area just lately. But they haven't (yet) made any of the live oaks look like those in Sharpstown. lol |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| I can attest they are butchered in nearly all (90-95%) commercial and residential plantings around here, too. There is one resident near me that has never pruned his purple flowering crapes and they are around 20' high and very pretty! Usually the only unpruned crapes one can find locally are on abandoned/foreclosed properties. I just try to avert my eyes at the mangled crapes when I drive by them. John |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| Ghostly, I just posted this pic to my post on the trees forum. I wonder if this is what they are aiming for. I took this picture in Mexico, near Guadalajara, and this is how they prune trees and shrubs there. After I got back, I started seeing small oak trees and lots of shrubs pruned like this. I had to stop my Mexican yardman from pruning a shrub in my yard to look like a cube, and he didn't understand why I didn't want it pruned that way. That's all he knew how to do. |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| Holy moly, if our lawn guy starts cutting the boxwoods and yews to look like that I'll have a cow. I haven't been down to Mexico in quite a while, didn't recall the cubist look to the landscaping back then but I may have been under the influence of some tequila, I don't really remember. lol Jon, we have some old crapes like that down the block, they are so pretty. The property must have been sold recently because landscapers (or scalpers) came in a month or two ago and removed two of the four crapes and most of the foundation plantings, it's not the shady, colorful corner it used to be, hopefully whoever had it done has a plan in mind, it just looks bald there now. |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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| Metro Atlanta here... I've seen the same pruning practice here and just assumed that was the correct way to do it. I took some clippings from a neighbors Crapes and rooted them last season and am excited to now own these beautiful trees. Thanks for the heads up that this is not best practice. Now if only I could convince every neighbor and local business. |
RE: Crepe murder...all over Houston
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- Posted by dis_ z9 CA (My Page) on
Mon, Feb 4, 13 at 3:30
| Where I live in Cali, it seems that most Crapes are not sujected to murder. There is one large main street where on one side they have large shapely Muskogees and on the other side the same cultivar that just got butchered right before the leaves had turned their gorgeous scarlet. In another town there is one strip mall that has their Crapes taken down to nubbins each year. It's more common to see planetrees butchered around here. It seems to be more acceptable but I think it spoils their winter silhouette. |
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