Walking through a park in my city today, I counted at least 30 olive trees pruned into these ridiculous little pom-pom balls. Completely bare, twisted trunks with all the foliage piled up into round lollipop shapes at the top. It looks like someone gave the entire park a poodle haircut.
And it’s not just an aesthetic crime, olive trees aren’t meant to be pruned into topiary balls like this, it affects pollination and can encourage scale insects.
To make matters worse, they’re planted on grass, which needs constant watering, something olive trees neither ask for nor benefit from.They’ve been adapted to Mediterranean drought for thousands of years. So on top of looking awful, they’re being badly cared for.
Someone walked into a municipal meeting and said, “Yes, let’s plant drought-resistant trees... and then water them like an English lawn.” 😂
Surely some stupid leaders, making stupid decisions as always
Had no clue olive trees are not to be pruned.
They can and should be pruned, but of course, not this kind of pruning. There are types of pruning that are necessary (rejuvenation pruning, production pruning, etc.), but decorative pruning where you leave just fou leaves is crazy. It’s one thing to remove dry branches, suckers sprouting from the tree itself, and those that cross the center of the tree… so yes, moderate pruning will prevent pests and problems, but as I was saying, such extreme cosmetic pruning will attract many more pests and ruin everything
The pruning really made the trees stand out
Nah, just because something is pretty doesn't make it good; in this case, it's neither good for the tree nor useful for people (it's about 40°C here and 0 trees to provide shade)