Trimming of Japanese Maples should be done when the plant is dormant. Late fall or early spring.

I have 4 japanese maples in my smaller sloped downward front yard. Two are dwarf ever reds which look great and I'm satified with my trimming efforts.

My problem is the two split leaf regular sized green japanese maples. I purchased my house about 2 years ago and someone had "trimmed" these into a boxwood type shape. So I've been letting them just go nuts to get a little more of a natural shape back to them. I'm to the point now (or in late fall I should say) that I want to trim them back. Can anyone provide a good picture of how these should look when trimmed correctly? I've looked through several of my japanese gardening books, but I haven't found a good example to go by.

And of the two larger maples, one has grown towards the sun as a typical wooded area is on its other side. This has caused it to grow toward the driveway, and over a little bit. A landscaper looked at it and thinks its too mature to train it another way now. Should you need photos of these two maples, let me know.

I hope this helps ladybug too.

Thanks!

You can prune a Japanese maple anytime you want. Upright or weeping. It doesn't make a difference. Start at the bottom and inside and work up making an umbrella as thin as you can without allowing too much sun on the trunk. Too much sum will sunscald the trunk. On the sidewalk side you can make the umbrella a little higher to make more room for walking.
Most Laceleafs are planted too close to something. They get larger than most people realize and do it faster too. They can be transplanted to a better location when dormant. That's what I would do.
I grow a lot of Japanese Maples. The link shows one of mine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pruned Japanese Laceleaf Maple

Hi, I just wanted to make sure that I can prune my japanese laceleaf dwarf at anytime. I see some conflicting information about only pruning it when the sap isnt running (late fall early spring)

Thanks!