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Old neighbor told me I was pruning my crepe myrtles all wrong
Been doing landscaping for about 8 years now but an older guy on my street caught me trimming my own trees last spring. He said I was doing that 'crepe murder' thing where you chop the tops off and it makes them look all knobby. Explained how to cut back to the branch collar instead and just thin out the smaller branches. Now my trees look way more natural and actually bloom better, but man did it feel weird leaving them so tall at first. Anyone else get schooled by a random neighbor on something you thought you knew?
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campbell.robin5h ago
Topping them is fine if you want more blooms" - see, that's exactly what I used to think too, until I learned the hard way. I got schooled by a retired arborist who lived two doors down, and he showed me the same thing your neighbor told you. It felt weird at first letting them go natural, like I was being lazy, but after a season or two the difference was night and day. The branches stopped looking like gnarly fists and the whole tree just filled out way better, plus I got way more flowers in the long run. I still cringe when I see someone doing that knobby chop thing, but I keep my mouth shut unless they ask. Sometimes the old guys really do know what they're talking about.
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