For the love of God, do not shear that tree with a hedge trimmer! It will look like an umbrella. Trim individual limbs with pruners. It's fine if limbs touch ground- aim for a more open, aesthetic look.

It wouldn't hurt you to browse google images of Japanese Maples to give you an idea or some inspiration of what direction to head in, but don't destroy its unique shape with a tool made for uniformity. Look at this link or google around for detailed information.

Well it would appear that this is a Weeping Cutleaf Japanese Maple. In at least half the photos I have seen of it you can see the outline of the branch structure and personally I prefer when you can see underneath it a tiny bit. So maybe it needs to be thinned out from the top down?

I second the "no way, Jose!" on the use of hedge trimmers with any Japanese maple. That's the equivalent of using a machete as a butter knife! Way too much of a tool for the job.

These types of Japanese maples are often grown specifically for their long skirts, limbs draping along the mulch is not an issue and they do not need to be trimmed. Most often these are seen in the landscape as large mounding umbrellas with no sign of the understructure until the tree is bare in winter. What you are seeing in the photos with bare bases are high graft dissectums and at least to my eye, they look extremely awkward and ungainly. The mounded, leafed fully to the ground is the more common preference.

Personally, I wouldn't touch it but if you do want to thin a bit, you do it from the inside out, not from the top down. And by that I mean you actually crawl under the tree and judiciously and selectively prune out individual branches to thin and/or lighten the canopy. You can also lift the skirts by selectively pruning off the longer tips, if you like. Don't remove more than a quarter to a third of the canopy at any one time. And right now - June - is an ideal time to do prune, if that is what you want to do.

I trim mine back with hedge trimmers every year and prefer it to look more treeish than bush.. although right now its a little unkempt.. i don't trim it in the summer.. so it can go wild all it likes.. Mine is at least 15 years old in michigan winters and trimming it has never hurt it.. just my input.

This shows one of mine in the early Spring. It shows some of the trunk which gives it more interest than a simple mound with a 'Dutch cut'. Notice how the outer line of the umbrella undulates. The new growth on the trunks was rubbed off shortly after the picture was taken. The earlier you can do that, the better.
Mike

Very nice, Mike! There is a big difference between "pruning" and shearing or hedging :-)

Gardengal, you know me, I like to show some leg! ;-)
Yeah, shearing is a no no, although there can be exceptions. I'll try to explain that in another thread. Notice I said, try. :-)

Here's a different one. This one is green during the summer. The leaves are real 'ferny' looking. More so than two other green ones I have. No names. I do a lot of trading due to a limited budget and no documented names is the downside. :-(

The lower back on the maple above is a bit congested and needs some thinning. I left it for demonstration purposes for a couple of friends of mine.
Looking south.
Robert L, this is wild! Looking south. I prune any time of the year. It seems they always need a little bit of it. Never hurts em'.
Two side by side. Looking north and in partial shade.
I'm not shy when it comes to pruning Japanese maples. You two should get brave also. Just don't suddenly expose young branches to the sun in the hot part of the day. You can make the north side more open than the south.
Mike

Those are all beautiful. Thank you for the photos. We recently planted an Acer Palmatum Red Dragon from a good nursery. Sturdy tree and seems to be doing well. I hear it is a very slow grower, like just a few inches/year if that in west sun? It's 4.5 ' or so now and seems very hardy. I'm in zone 7a. Wonder if it will change color in the fall.

How do you get the branches to twist and turn? I love what you have done with your Japanese maple and will try to make mine look the same.

" How do you get the branches to twist and turn? "

You buy the right cultivar to begin with and it happens naturally.

If you note, this thread is seven years old.

If you start a new thread more people will see your question and respond to it.