Your choices are too numerous to spec out ...you though do not say how much sun/shade the area gets or what color(s) you want. Basically any maple can be kept trimed small and shaped as needed. Most folks feel they are easily trimed and hard to hurt by doing so.And much will depend on what color you want and whether you want a dissectim or broader leafed variety.If you ask 100 folks in this forum you'll get 100 different answers and be even more confused. I'd go to Daves garden www.davesgarden.com and go to the plant files ...then go to japanese maples and scroll though them alphabetically check zones and descriptions and photos if available...then when you narrow down your search google up the cultivar and check places where avaiable and prices.If you weren't just lookin' for one I'd recommend jd Vertrees book but at 30+$$ for one tree thats a bit extravagent David

I think you could generate some very interesting discussions regarding the advisability of routinely pruning Japanese maples to control size - there is an entire of school of though that cautions against it unless one is particularly skilled in pruning Japanese maples as excessive pruning can and often does irreversibly alter the habit and appearance of these trees.

If you have a restricted space, you will be far happier selecting a cultivar that will remain in scale with the location - it is the proverbial landscape design tenet of "right plant, right place". Why select something that will need repeated attention to remain of appropriate size?

There are a reasonable number of Japanese maple cultivars that have a smaller scale and a vase-shaped or upright habit. If you have a protected location, many of the variegated forms would work. Also quite a few of the linearlobum group have narrow profiles, moderate height and a very airy appearance. Other possibilities are 'Red Pygmy', 'Shishi gashira', 'Villa Taranto', 'Shaina' 'Shigatasu sawa' ('Reticulatum'), 'Peaches and Cream' and various selections of the 'Ghost' series. And there are a good number of upright dwarf forms that will never exceed your space limitations but tend to have a more congested rather than airy growth habit.

A visit in season to a good local garden center that features these trees should offer all sorts of possibilities. Most better nurseries in the PNW offer rather extensive selections of these maples. Just a word of caution - very young Japanese maples often have a decidedly different habit than they develop as they mature. I wouldn't select just based on current appearance - get some knowledgeable help in making a proper selection.

Well, I certainly have a lot of options.... good job I have until Spring to decide! Thanks everyone.

I hope you will consider the native Vine Maple, Acer circinatum. It is definitely small enough for a space like that.

With some sun exposure it can be very colorful, showing multicolored & red tones in Summer leaves and bright oranges and reds in the golden Autumn colors; even in shade it turns bright yellow in Fall. The new growth, flowers, and young seeds add color earlier in the year too.

It only grows long and spindly in moist shady spots under other trees, looking perfectly OK that way. It stays more bushy, upright, and usually smaller everywhere else. They are used in commercial landscaping a lot here in Western Oregon. Unfortunately they are too-often badly pruned into almost ugly artificial shapes though. It sounds like you will want the looser, more open natural form.

There are also several named varieties of different coloring; I have one small potted one which has bright chartreuse-green leaves and red branches. Fall color was lemon-yellow, and it looks as as cheerfully, uninhibitedly naked now as a red twig dogwood. The hussy! I can't recall the cultivar name offhand and have hidden the tag in a box somewhere.

An added advantage to the natives of course is that you know they are adapted perfectly to your area, and usually don't require much if any additional care once they are established. That won't be a problem in a Coastal area of BC.

Vincent

J. Vertrees recommended pruning of Japanese maples to control size in his book JAPANESE MAPLES.

Dwarf maples for small spaces:
Aratama*--changeful
Baby Lace*--Multi-color, very slow growing
Wilson's Pink Dwarf--Great spring color
Fjellheim--Semi-dwarf, coral-red bark
Kotohime--Compact, great form
Koto-no-ito--Interesting leaves, great fall color
Kandy Kitchen*--Multi-color, seasonal interest
Kamagata--Great habit
Ruby Ridge*--Great form and color in all seasons, large leaves
Shigure bato--interesting deeply divided leaves
Amber Ghost*--reticulated, good colors

The ones marked (*) are some of my favorites. There are many more. All can easily be contained in your area. All but Amber Ghost and Baby Lace can take a fair amount of sun. Those two will take sun past mid-day, but would like some protection.

Gardengals suggestion of Shigitatsu sawa is a good one, but it is not synonymous with Reticulatum. It would be unlikely you would see a plant offered as Reticulatum, but it is possible that a plant sold as Shigitatsu sawa could be Reticulatum.

As for purning, maples can be easily and readily pruned throughout there lives, but it good to prune thoughtfully and evenly to support appearance of a natural form as is done in bonsai.

MJH

Mike, a number of sources list Reticulatum as synonymous with Shigitatsu sawa. Is there is reason you think it is a separate cultivar?

Thanks to those that clarified my blanket statement on pruning...I certainly didn't want to suggest creating a horror movie out of the process ( keep Freddy Kreuger away from your trees!!!), and obviously some cultivars will work better than others (more trim-worthy than others) depending on the space height vs width etc. But as slow growing ( relative to many other trees) as most JM's are, it is fairly easy to prune them for whatever space you have ...But it is common sense that this be done as the tree grows NOT after 10 years of growth. The tree may look alot differnt than one let to grow in an auboretum or in the wild but that is neither a good or bad thing (except to maybe a purist) just differnt IMHO. As far as having a pro trim it ...well most folks can do it themselves with common sense and a little vision, if you have neither hire it done. I usually reserve pro's for large trees where i don't want to kill myself or damage property...but that's me!! David

Gardengal,

In the case of Reticulatum and Shigitatsu sawa, for some it will be whether or not they want to separate out the two maples. In many cases we deal in forms of maples, different forms of Sango kaku, Beni and aka forms of Kasagiyama, different forms of red dissectums,etc. In the case we are dealing in forms, many people will lump then and not worry or not learn how to tell the plants apart. If you have the opportunity to see Kasagiyama sold by many different vendors, you will wonder why the leaf colors are different. There are different color forms as well as different growth habit forms of that plant. This story applies to many many maples. There is also the senario that a plant was introduced from Japan and then a plant under the same name introduced through Europe. They may have the same name and be very similar, but they aren't always the same plant. So I suppose my point is that with in the names of maples there are many types and forms to sort out.

What Esveld has done recently is lump Reticulatum with Shigitatsu sawa. They are not synonymous and I wonder if the Van Gelderns no longer know how to tell the plants apart? If you look at the online photo compilations of the two names you will see at least two distinct plants, but many of the reticulated forms have been bastardized now and they are more mixed up. The most problematic is the introcuctions of seedling forms of the two plants diluting the field.

I do not consider them synonymous or forms of eachother. There are two distinct leaf shape involved and while they both have a green on white reticulated base, one plant will show more pink in the spring and can show some red in the late summer and fall. One of them actually has more white in the base.

Form most people it would be suitable to lump the two together, but it is also nice to know that the two plants exist as we see the increasing introduction of new reticulated maples it can help us to determine the parentage of these new plants. In an ideal world, curators and growers of these plants would have separated them. But you are correct, I went back to the 1st ed. of Vertress and Van Gelderns Maples for Gardens and the authors do give the impression the two plants are synonymous.

MJH

The first maple to come to mind is Acer palmatum Koto No Ito, it would do a nice job meeting your criteria. It looks delicate but is a fairly tough plant from my experience and from talking to those who have collected maples for some time. It also has nice fall color, at least here in Ohio.
David

this one may be too delicate for your location if it is very sunny but 'red filigree lace' has some of the most delicate looking foliage i have seen on a maple.
it is a slow growing, small-limbed cultivar and mine is still less than 2' tall after 4 years, purchased at about a foot high. it is a good one for growing in a container.