Our "What Were They Thinking?" Department

This is what I posted on Facebook this past Tuesday evening, in the hopes that we could save the beauty and integrity of at least a few crape myrtles in Texas.

Garden Tip: A couple of weeks ago, I begged everyone not to "top" crape myrtles. To my surprise, there were a couple of people who argued on behalf of the whack jobs. So, I offer you the choice based on these two photos. (By the way, if you have a crape myrtle that’s too big for its spot, transplant it now or just remove it entirely — don’t top it!) (Remember my mentioning a shopping center that was getting its crape myrtles chopped a couple of weeks ago when my wife and I drove by? One of you must have called them, because it stopped. Whoever made that call spared probably 200 crape myrtles their good looks. Shame we couldn’t have gotten to the ones in the top photo.)