By Mike Isbell
University of Georgia

I know you've seen them -- crape myrtle trees with their tops whacked off. Amputated -- now that's the way to describe it.

It's not limited to just crape myrtles, either. You'll see it on pecan trees in people's yards and on street trees in town, where it's called "topping."

Trees should never be topped. It destroys the branching control and the natural shape of the tree. Topping trees makes them ugly. It can lead to structural problems in the tree, too.

Many years ago, my father became concerned about the huge pecan trees towering over the home place and wanted them topped. I did a little research and found there was a much better way to prune the trees and to lower their height without topping them.

Trees with crew cuts

Now, back to the crape myrtles. Crape myrtles need pruning. If you do it right, your pruning will hardly be noticed. You certainly can't say that if you just cut the tops out of them.

I have a friend who, for years, would cut out the top of the crape myrtle near his walkway. Since a crape myrtle produces flower buds on new growth, it flowers best if it's pruned each year. My friend's tree flowered profusely each year, but the way it was pruned made it look like a big ball on a stick.

This year he cut it down.

Pruning crape myrtles

On large, old crape myrtles, heavy pruning may not be needed, since the tree shape itself is the desirable feature.

If your tree is growing too tall, then you planted the wrong one. Replace it with a smaller-growing tree -- there are many to choose from. Then you won't have to prune it to keep it small. Pruning a tree to reduce the height is going to be a maintenance battle.

And you'll never win.