On Friday, Bradford put up a cheeky post asking the question in the headline. In the comments, people took the question seriously and speculated that the Nasher was over-trimming crape myrtles. I pass these trees every day on my walk to work and have always marveled at how they spring back from their yearly haircut. So here’s the real story from Neil McGlennon, the museum’s tree expert. Aft the jump an image from Google Maps showing the trees in spring.
They’re called Vitex trees. They produce small blue flowers in the summer months. They are very similar to Crape Myrtle trees. They grow very quick and need to be controlled by pruning. We originally had selected Chinese maple trees, but we did not have the shade to keep them alive, so we opted for the Vitex (nicknamed the Texas weed). If you have room for the trees to grow naturally, you would do minor directional trimming. Our trees are directly under our roof line, so we need to cut them back each year during the month of December. This keeps them manicured.
