Weedwhacker said:We have relatives in FL that we visit at least every other year, but in February or March, which is when we go, it seems like they've all been cut back to looking more or less like a tree that's in the process of being cut down... 
That's called Crepe Murder! I've never understood why that became the norm in many areas of the south; I think I saw that for the first time @ ten or twelve years ago when cities around Florida began heavy, drastic pruning and the landscape looked so strange! I came home from work one afternoon and my husband had taken his chain saw to the Crepe's in our yard and I thought I was gonna cry. I asked him why in the world he did that and he said, "Well, I saw city crews doing it along the roadways and I thought that's what you were supposed to do this time of year." It never happened in our yard again.
