This is sooo wrong! Dave mentioned this in one of his podcasts, it must be a southern thing, I have never seen it done here.

http://thedailysouth.southernl...

And they did add an excellent article on the proper pruning, adding another shot of a bad example. http://thedailysouth.southernl...

The education of people on proper crepe myrtle pruning has really taken off in recent years and seems to be having an effect. In nearly every lecture I give, I mention the pruning of crepe myrtles and more and more people are "getting it".

They just look SO ugly when improperly pruned. Gag!

Oh, that is sad, here they died down naturally, I always wanted one with a trunk!

Locally even the landscapers here are Crepe Murderers. Some people follow their example every February thinking they know what they are doing when they don't!

An additional awful photo and article, oh my!! http://thedailysouth.southernl...

Wow, that's shockingly bad. I've never seen anything remotely that bad.

I should go get a photo of our next door neighbor's crepe myrtles. They do the typical "chainsaw them down every winter at about 6 feet."