Just your typical light grooming if needed. I check mine for dead tips and trim those off. And any unwanted suckers at the base I don't want. Yours looks great in the pic. What variety is this one? Good luck. Tropcialfreak

No, in fact NO, it's NOT the way they are pruned - it's the variety. There are CM cultivars that grow no taller than 3' and those that grow to 35' or more. If you REALLY have fallen in love with one of the huge ones, and have a smallish space for it, you MIGHT get away with keeping it multi-trunked, and cutting out about a third or less of the trunks every few years, but you would have MUCH less trouble if you decided that you do like one that will mature at the desired size. Pruning for shape and health - crossing, broken or wayward branches - on CMs should be done in late Jan. or Feb. If you want to prune out suckers from the trunks or roots, then do that in mid-summer, as they are less likely to resprout then.

Glad I found this post. I'm in the same situation except I unknowingly (from the north) followed locals' advice and am the crape murder culprit to the trees I inherited. Have 2 trees, full sun. Once in front of house-looks pretty mature to me (7 to 8+ ft tall, multi-trunked) and one in front of porch (smaller, never been as healthy and flowers/grows much less) Any tips on how close to the ground to remove the limbs? The one in front of the house has multiple limbs that have no side branches til you get close to the top. Classic poor pruning, I think. Should I remove to the ground or just remove half of the limbs (i.e, would they be able to form a tree shape if I leave 2 feet of bare vertical limbs sticking up with no side branches)? Should I fertilize and/or water more, less, not at all? Is there anything else I can do to minimize the shock? For the crape in front of my porch, I do need to keep it from growing too high (I don't know the species-I didn't plant it). Should I cut it back too to try and obtain a natural tree shape, and if I do, how do I prune it to control vertical growth without crape murder? Thanks to all.

I'm no expert, so let me start with that! But, I would let them go a couple years before you decide to curate them to get a certain look. I have a crape in my front yard (full sun) that I planted 3 years ago. Each year I decided to let the sucker branches grow to see what happens. I planned on trimming them this fall. But, last year's winter (in VA) killed the main 2 branches/trunks and I wound up cutting them way down so that now, it's basically a bush. I'm going to keep pruning it to keep it bush-like, vs. a tree.