Client asked me to 'trim it like a poodle' on a job in Phoenix

Last month I was doing a routine pruning on a mesquite tree out in Phoenix and the homeowner comes out with a photo of a poodle haircut. She was dead serious and wanted me to shape the whole canopy into round pompoms. I had to explain that trees don't grow back the same way fur does and she got mad I wouldn't do it. Has anyone else had clients ask for something totally wild that you had to talk them out of?

3 comments

3 Comments

jasonf1728d ago

A few years back my sister asked her landscaper to plant a "privacy screen" and handed him a photo of a formal English hedge maze. She got frustrated when he said it would take ten years of constant trimming just to get knee-high. I see this kind of thing a lot, honestly. People watch those TV home makeover shows and think everything in real life works exactly like a thirty second time lapse video. There is this weird gap between what people imagine nature should do and what it actually does.

the_richard28d ago

Drives me nuts how people think everything in life is like a quick fix or a filter on Instagram. Real stuff takes time and effort, but nobody seems to have the patience for that anymore.

wendyprice27d ago

Calling this a "weird gap between what people imagine nature should do and what it actually does" feels a bit dramatic. It's a tree trimming request, not a philosophical crisis. Most people just don't know how plants work and say something dumb based on a meme or a weird idea they had. They get mildly annoyed for ten minutes and move on. Acting like this is some deep societal failure about patience and Instagram filters is overthinking a homeowner wanting a poodle tree. Sometimes a person is just clueless about plants. That's all it is.