With so few leaves left, I'm not sure those trees will even survive. It looks like they've done their best to kill them.

We'll see what happens. Their intention was only to prune, but they may/may not survive. sigh. I wish they'd hired an arborist, but they cheaped out instead.

They should read "The Hidden Life of Trees" They'll never look at a tree in the same way again. I think the trees will survive. They have their ways.

Many years ago a friend a couple of blocks down came home to seeing her dh had hacked their hydrangea back to the ground; he thought he was helping her prune. she was in utter tears and after he died (too young,) a year or so later, moved in her grief to another block nearby. The other day I was walking past her old house and I saw that the plant is slowly coming back. Of course, I don't know whether the newer owners are hacking it back too. It was a glorious bush with many flowers, back in the day.

We have some other neighbors at the other end who hack their trees back every so often, as in your picture, to make sure their solar cells get a lot of sunshine. I hate it and it looks awful.

oh, that reminds me of a super layered hair cut I did not ask for!!!

That is hideous!

We have live oaks here. You can prune them up so the branches are off the ground and don't hit the house, but they will eventually be huge trees. We went to pick up dd's friend one day and looked over into the neighbors yard. OMG! These people have shaped their live oaks into rectangular boxes. You don't shape oak trees like that. It looks awful.

ETA: I killed two hydrangeas by trying to mess with the color. I found a sad looking one on clearance for $2 after Mother's Day. I planted it and left it alone. So far, so good. It has lived for two years and has thrived. It even made it through this last winter. It has one bunch of blooms on it right now in a purple/pink.

I see signs of construction work in the picture. Perhaps these trees are being prepped for removal? If not, they have been utterly ruined.

Was it the power company that pruned them? This is what some of our trees look like when they grow near or under the lines. They did mine in March and now the trees are growing out again.

They aren't planning on them being removed. I think that's left from when they were cutting. It's a super old building, not construction.

It wasn't the power company. They actually do a better job, believe it or not ;) They hired some landscape company to do it.

What a shame. They might as well remove them now.

We have a lot of Mexican landscapers here and they don't know how to prune anything or mulch correctly. They pile it right up to the trunk of the tree or shrub and then they die.

The plants, not the Mexicans. I just read that back to myself and thought I should clarify. ;)

Thanks for straightening that out mayflowers. It really struck me funny. I was laughing so hard, the cat went berserk.

looks like the trees in my QFC parking lot . They did the same kind of prune on them.They look so strange. I don't know, but the people next door to me said (when I asked when they did a tree) that you only are to do 1/3rd of the tree at a time.

I have a running feud with the power company. Every three years or so they send a band of Mexicans to butcher trees and there is always a big scene at my house. I won't let them touch any until the forester makes an appearance. (Husband is a retired forester). Then I stand and watch them like a hawk. I have the oldest Atlas cedar in our county as well as several over 100-year-old trees. I adore trees and my lot looks like a forest.

Those trees will be okay. That pruning method is called pollarding. I have my maleleucas cut back every two years like that. I know it is unattractive, but it will look better later.

When someone hacks up your plants more than you wanted....

They don't. I must be a real terror because no one would dare. DH learned long ago to 'cut here, cut there' under direction (mine) and never take the chore on himself alone. Recently we've had a younger friend much more comfortable at the top of a ladder with pruning saw in hand and even he understands that unlike at home, here - he follows MY plan. Call me control freak, I don't care ;0)

Reminds me of the crepe murder you see down south. Some people shouldn't be allowed to have trees.

https://www.google.com/search?q=crepe+murder&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIwPic4ezaAhUn94MKHXMZAD8Q_AUICigB&biw=1355&bih=649

I think they call that kind of pruning "hat racking." I would think subsequent growth would be spindly and weak. It's a shame.

Cindy....What ugly work on the crepes. Crepe "murder" for sure...lol. We just had our crepe myrtles cleaned out. The workers didn't hat rack the trees!!! The trees look great and are just now starting to leaf out.

lol Yes it's called pollarding. I trim my trees like that....not kidding. They bush out in balls, very dense .....very pretty....and no fragile branches heading sideways that can't hold snow or crack in the wind. Ie: took a year to grow out this much after prunning. That's almost the top of the trees in the photo. Note: when I purchased this house they hung over my houses roof & the neighbors rear covered porch.....dangerous.

We live on Cape Cod - zone 7b. We planted a Crape Myrtle about 4 years ago. It's only bloomed once but has grown quite tall. We were in Savannah in March and watched some men prune 3 or 4 of them in a public park while we were there. My husband took some pictures. When we got home I researched pruning for these trees. I found this tutorial and my husband pruned our tree this way:

https://www.wilsonbrosgardens.com/how-to-prune-a-crape-myrtle-tree.html

They are late to break dormancy so we shall see what the season brings but I'm hoping for flowers this year.

Rob, that is hacked up and awful for sure. I am of the opinion that some people think anyone can trim a tree, and there is no bad way to do it. That is so wrong, as we know. And this is a perfect example of what NOT to do. About the only other thing worse is to do it in the wrong time of year when it could be adversely affected by weather.

That is not an example of pollarding.

We call them "broccoli trees."

Some trees sort of recover after a few years. I much prefer trees that were planted with appropriate space around them, but hey, in town, what can you do. Sometimes it's either this treatment, or lose the tree entirely.

Wow, Mexicans are kind of getting a bad rap here. I think any unskilled (cheap) labor, regardless of race or ethnicity, probably doesn't have training in artful pruning.

Hold on here. I'm not calling anyone out, but just going to mention this, because I live in So.Cal. When you see people of color doing landscaping, they might or might not be from Mexico. They might or might not actually be Mexican. They could be from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, or very tan white people. My goodness. I'm not super politically correct, but around here, I don't EVER hear anyone refer to landscapers, skilled, unskilled, or whatever, as "Mexicans." And I mean, no one I know calls people by their heritage.

And, of course, I'll throw this in. I have a good friend who is Mexican, but has blonde hair and blue eyes, and is not interested in landscaping at all. So, just in general, it's not a good idea to call people out by their heritage, or what you suspect their heritage is. It's demeaning.

I’m glad something has been said about the (unnecessary) addition of an assumed country of origin of some landscapers. I was wondering how to word something that expressed my dismay with how casually a whole country has been maligned in this thread. But others have done it more eloquently than I.

My guess is that those trees are Bradford pears. They are routinely 'pruned' that way, when I was working in Nashville I saw that all the time, and not only to ornamental pears. As rhizo said that is NOT pollarding. Anyway, the trees will respond with a mass of water sprouts and epicormic shoots, it will have grown many feet by summers end. The hack job will change the shape of the trees for as long as they live. Taking a closer look at the image, I see they have been similarly butchered in the past. TN, and many other states, consider them invasive species. The trees develop terrible crotches subject to splitting in storms, or just self-destructing. In their defense, they bloom white very early, sometimes in Feb, and I've seen them in full blazing fall color at Christmas in Nashville.

The "Mexican" generalization is an insult to others not from Mexico. In this thread I'm sure they are happy for the "Mexican" label.

In Southern California its true Mexican is usually correct, but its best not to assume.

Kenns, it is a tree in Metro-Nashville. And that is their claim. Hack it, or suffer splitting.

I too was dismayed to see an entire group maligned.

Lily, I'm rather surprised at your 'band of Mexicans' comment. When our power company comes out, no matter what their backgrounds are, they butcher the trees as well; they only cut those limbs which may interfere with the wires and the trees look awful. Taking the time to prune properly would cost more money so I'm quite sure the trimmers' instructions are to lop only the problem limbs.

Mulberry trees need to be trimmed way back to nothin' every year or they grow out of control.

I am the least racist person around.When I said band of Mexicans, it's because that's what they are and they speak not a word of English. They are not skilled and trying to communicate with them is fruitless. In the next block over evergreen trees over 2 or 3 stories high had ALL their branches on one side cut off while the owners were at work. This particular tree service only hires Mexicans who can't communicate which is stupid. This is fairly recent occurrence because years ago, we could at least tell them what we wanted to be pruned. These guys just hack away and know nothing about the skill of pruning. And I'd say this if they were a bunch of Norwegians.

My city is almost 30% Mexican. They are our neighbors and an important part of our community, so much so that we are a sanctuary city. They live here because we are in the heart of the professional nursery industry. I've lived on the west coast for 37 years among Mexican people, and those who are landscaping the homes in my neighborhood who have incorrectly pruned or mulched have been Mexican. Mexican is not a dirty word.

1. I agree with:
2. Fun2BHere Those trees will be okay. That pruning method is called pollarding.

And, we have become so temperamental that "a band of [anything]" is probably improper.

Totally correct, mayflowers. Mexican is not a dirty word. There are no Mexicans in our town but many in the orchards in a nearby county where they are by far the best workers the orchards hire. Their nationality was mentioned because they do not speak English and obviously, the power company just gave them rudimentary instructions to hack trees within 3 feet or more of power lines and in no matter that was especially pleasing. On the whole, Mexicans are the hardest working people around and when the idiot in chief wants to send them all back to Mexico, the people in this country who rely on their services will be in for a shock.

I don't know how one goes into the landscaping business and does not learn the correct way to take care of plants. It may be a language barrier or just not bothering to learn the right way.

A few years ago my Latino neighbors hired a Latino landscape crew to get their yard ready to sell the house. They moved back to Texas and asked me to mow and water until the new owners moved in in a few weeks. The mulch was six inches deep around their shrubs and they were dying. I pulled all the mulch away from them. They took a chainsaw to their dwarf evergreen in summer and scalped it into an ice cream cone shape. It didn't recover for two years.

Plenty of so-called landscapers don't know what the he11 they're doing. Doesn't matter if they're Americans, Mexicans, Latinos, or whatever.