It really does not look like it is hiding anything but it’s a bit different in person, sitting down.

wow, that is one huge weed in there and it’s siblings further in, lol! I see more work for me...trim peony flowers, irises, etc. before it gets hot. All I wanna do is sit and gaze...

I will go with the consensus as I am rather new to Japanese maples. Thank you in anticipation of your suggestions.

I have the same problem..a pic from last fall..I just started to charge the phone or I would take a current picture..I forget who but someone said to remove the 2 lowest branches on this tree but I can't do it..hard to tell from this pic but I would lose a lot of foliage..anxious to see the comments that you get..

Glad to see this dilemma is not an isolated issue. What beautiful autumn colour!

I took another photo to cover more angles if it’s helpful...

I don’t know what you SHOULD do but I know what I’d do. I’m a notorious whacker, so I’d start clipping until the poor maple had one of those bad haircuts your Mom’d give you when you were little...

I’m laughing because I can easily visualize that haircut... you notorious whacker, lol.

steeler should have her clippers taken away ...

unlike huge regular trees ... a JMaple should be a work of art .. there is no reason NOT to make it such ...

with tree trimming ... understand.. you do it in tree time.. which is counted in years or decades ... you can always come back a take more ... but you cant glue bad cuts back on ...

when you can state a goal ... then the actual pruning... is easy ... accomplish your goal ...

i dont see here.. that it has any impact on the hosta... other than being a maple ....

i dont like that it is a bit of a lollipop .... i might try to change that .... more layers ...

how low a branch is.. depends on what you are doing under your tree ... if it interferes with your hosta.. then prune it up a bit ... perhaps shorten a few of the one that are bending/extending ... that limb in the first pic ... you dont have to cut it all off right away.. just cut back to a notch or some such ...

no matter what you do.. dont leave stubs ...

one way to look for a goal.. is to look at pix like these ... try to ID what pleases your eye ... the old standard is bloodgood.. so i used that ... in the search

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Acer+palmatum+bloodgood&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

note that in a lot of the pix .. there is that seemingly erratic large top growth ... that should never be cut off ... it would be called 'topping' .... and that is never favored ... STEELER!!!!

but.. that said.. its your tree.. your yard.. and your goal .. so who cares what i think ... or anyone else ...

this is not a 100 foot tree hanging over your house.. and going to kill you in your sleep when it fails ... so whatever pleases you is good enough ...

and ... being a maple.. you probably couldnt kill it.. if you tried ... thru pruning ... though if it is a grafted tree [not bloodgood] ... you could screw it up by cutting off the graft ... and being left with non descript root stock ... im not sure about bloodgood .... i think its seed grown ... so that MIGHT not be an issue ...

sooooo.... what is your goal???

ken

steeler , I am still visualizing the bowl cut and Jo if it bothers you clip away but be gentle and try one or two before it is a charlie brown .Reminds me of a saying my brother in law uses... that if the barn needs painting,,, paint it

Ken, you are so wise.....you always have a way of directing people in learning new things and encouraging them to make artistic decisions best make by them. I would not whack away at it either, but I understand your wanting to see the beauty of your hostas as well. If it were me, I would probably want to remove it too. But upon closer inspection, there seems to be only one lower branch on that left lower side with several smaller branches coming off of that. If you take that branch off, you my feel the tree is not as symmetrical as you‘d like. So.......... like Ken said, what’s your goal? If viewing the hostas is the goal, then maybe snip a bit and see what you think. If you want the symmetry of the tree, move your chair over........ lol .........let us know what you decide to do.

Here's my 2-cents-worth... and that's about all it's worth. If this is an Emperor or Bloodgood (I have one of each too) it will grow quite a bit taller and wider. I would be pruning UP - so that you'll eventually have a nice canopy providing nice filtered shade, with various layers in different directions at different levels. And I wouldn't want one of the main sections of the tree to break off from excessive weight in a winter storm (which is what happened to my Bloodgood earlier this year).

I assume we're talking about the smallish branch on the left, which partly obscures Liberty... I would probably remove it cleanly and close to the main upward limb. And it's probably best, according to what I've read, to do it in the winter/very early spring... but since that appears to be a very small branch it won't hurt the tree to remove it anytime. I try not to remove more than one-third of any tree or shrub at a time when pruning... so I've been pacing myself and trying to have an overall plan or goal for them... and do just enough each year to move closer to that goal.

Also, if it's a visual obstruction, it's probably an obstruction when you're trying to work in that bed... another reason to prune it upwards a little more.

take a look at these images .. i especially like the ones that gray out what they cut off.. so you can kind of see a before and after ..

mostly ignore the fruit pruning images ... as you arent pruning a fruit tree... but it still shows you various methods .... aka goals ... with fruit production.. the goal is max sun on the fruit ... its not the goal with a JM ...

i dont think i like that you have 4 leaders in there ... and i would probably horrify you.. if i happened to walk up to it with my pruning saw.. as you would probably think i massacred it ... lol ... but 10 years down the line.. you might appreciate what i did ... [it is a maple.. it really should fear me ... lol ...it would definitely know who is in charge ... lol]

ken

ps: the red leaves hovering over the hosta leaves.. is visually pleasant to me ... but in a year or two ... it would probably be stiffling to my view of the hosta .... so i would be planning on messing with that branch.. but again... its not really an all or nothing prune ... there is one final proper cut.. at the trunk ... and that might be 5 years down the line.. with annual pruning back ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tree+pruning+diagrams&t=ffsb&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.saws.org%2FConservation%2FOutdoor%2FCareGuide%2FPruning%2Fimages%2Ftree_shaping.gif

Yep first image lower left brunch gotta go. Rest of wait till winter, take pics and decide what you do not like. My 2

have you considered moving the hosta?..then the maple can stay unpruned..I have neighbors that either love to prune (like oursteelers!) or have hired help that love to prune..we have quite a few unnatural looking Japanese maples and shrubs in our neighborhood..I probably spend more time pruning than they do yet most people would think that I need to prune Lol..but I love a natural look..

I wouldn't cut it. Japanese maples are so graceful and tat branch adds to that, I think. It looks like you will have more branching out on the other side, too, so then your tree will be lopsided or, as others have said, you will keep trimming to balance it and in so doing, ruin the magic.

And yes, brings to mind bad bangs trimming.

I'd cut those 2 bottom wispy branches right off and sit back and enjoy the view you desire.

Wow, I have to step back and process all this great information first...

Ken, I DO wish YOU could just make that cut (re leaders)! I’d be too chicken although I agree with you. When I first bought this tree, it wasn’t as full of course and I bought it for its height when comparing to others. Thanks very much for the links!

What a great suggestion re taping, Mae!!! I will do some homework and get back to you all. What a great bunch you are, so helpful! :-)

Interesting read. I'm pretty new to growing JM too. At first I was afraid to cut anything. This year, I've pruned, staked and given a hair cut to a few of mine. The haircut was to remove the non-variegated portion of the maple. I probably need to stake and prune more on that one to develop a central leader. I'd cut those two lower branches off.

This one is shading my Hinoki Cypress. It is gone this fall. It was nice before it got too big (poor planning). I have 6 others (one the same 5 different) so it's not so bad.

- Jon

I'm not sure that JM's really have to have a central leader.

BTW - there are YouTube videos, and all kinds of info online about pruning JM's specifically.... worth a look.

No throwing rotten eggs at me, but I was wondering if you could tie that limb to the main trunk and keep tightening it enough to train it to grow more upright over time. I did that once with a Magnolia and it changed enough for me, but never had a JM. (Use rubber or something to protect bark)

No worries, pandora, no rotten eggs, lol! Amazing how you trained a magnolia branch!

Steve, I would love to see what yours looks like!

Windymess, I have been viewing some YouTube videos and learned quite a bit along the way. It certainly WAS worth it.

We are experiencing very hot weather so I’ve been indoors. Lucky maple! Since it is in its third or fourth year only, and since I cant seem to make up my mind what to do, I will ponder a while longer.

Thank you for the suggestions, sharing your experiences, taking an interest and most of all taking the time to help out a fellow gardener.

You asked for it. Tough to capture in pictures, but here's what I found from this year. Orange Dream was very full down low where it was hiding my Hostas. (or will be soon). I also pruned the top a little.

I pruned a bunch of the low hanging branches and got a lot of top growth but still have foliage down below, just not obstructing my view. The color isn't as nice later in the year, but I like the shape better.

Rainbow needed the hair cut. Not a great before pic, but it's too late for one now. You'll have to take my word for it, but above the top of the pic was a couple feet of solid color leaves stretching out further in a "V" shape.After the hair cut:
Here are some others unmolested by me. August Moon (Top part cut off from picture) and Coralinum
Amagi Shigare

Late to the party here, but like others, I know what my goal would be. For the spot where that JM is at, hovering over the hostas, I would be shooting for a very spreading, vase shaped tree, so those two lower branches would have to go.

Nice collection S Duggins.

My japanese maple is off balance and personally like the odd ball shape that looks bonsai like. My other dies but is coming back from the ground level with several stock. Possibly if it looks like it may live I can cut it to one stalk to train as a tree but may not live long enough to see it mature to anything. I may just buy another and replace but they are so darn expensive

steve duggins..beautiful maples..you did a great job pruning..I'm a chicken when it comes to pruning Japanese maples..maintenance is easier when the branches aren't so low..I'm going to remove the lowest branch on the maple above when the weather cools down..

Well it seems all of us hosta growers love JPs also. So now I want to tune in after all off these comments about my own JP. I must say I was a complete novice when I planted my “Tamukeyama” JP. It was small and I was looking for something to hold the soil on a slight slope, near a Red Maple tree. Many years later, I have wondered about a better location, but am afraid to try to move it. Any thoughts?

I have a Red Dragon JM that hates where it’s planted. Id love to know it’s chances of survival if I move it.

I've read it's best to move them when dormant. DJ, I like your JM there. Why do you want to move it?

I'm lucky to live 2 hours away from Maplestone Ornamentals and only 6 miles from Dawes Arboretum that both have world class JM collections. I've managed to visit and buy more than a few times. MO sells in gallons so they're not too expensive and I get to watch them grow up. Dawes has really great prices on nice sized trees. My collection is now up to 22 different, but they are getting harder to place. I've got room for a couple more sun loving ones, perhaps this fall when Dawes has their sale. I managed to get a few more pics that show what I'm doing, but I'm far from an expert.

Here's the Orange Dream from a better angle. I'd like to develop a strong central leader, but it seems like it wants multiple ones. I'll probably try staking one soon, but I'm done cutting on it this year - just once in the spring. I had no idea this was such a quick grower and might have planted it too close to the house, but it looks like it is growing away from it anyway.

This is Smokie Rise Church and definitely planted too close to the house. I thought it would be more upright so I'm trying to train it that way and pruned some of the wide growing branches off already. I didn't have a place for it, so I just put it in the ground last fall (since I killed the last one over winter in a pot) and it's really taken off.It looked really cool this spring and you can see how much its grown this year. I took a branch growing toward the down spout and staked it up so the tree was balanced more forward.

This is Emerald Mist just bought it a month ago. Its supposed to get big fast and take lots of sun. I love the way the leaves turn red in sunlight. I guess its a pretty green in the spring. (I can move the daylily later). I just staked it up for now, it was a bit too sprawling.

Well Steve, I thought growth was maybe being impaired because of it’s closeness to the huge Red Maple near it. I think some of my hostas may be getting choked too. Every time I dig or my garden guy, Bert digs, we come up with roots all the time. Some one recently mentioned a root slayer (was it you?) and I ordered one. Hasn’t arrived yet. I think I also planted it there to provide some privacy to the yard. Maybe I am worried for nothing. P.S. your brick house looks just like mine! Thanks for your thoughts!

I did mention my Root Slayer, but I think it was Jon who was asking about it and bought one and liked it for some things. I use mine around some Hosta beds trying to keep the roots from entering. I was a little late getting started and I probably need to do it more often, but I'm busy doing other stuff. We've only lived here 4 years and I've probably planted 500 plants so far. Tamukeyama was one of the first things I planted here (within a month or two). Its a slow grower for me. I bought one that was really arched over to one side (on sale) that I planted near the edge of our terrace thinking it would look cool arching over and down. Still waiting for that effect. Also planted Clematis Rooguchi under the arching branches thinking they would look good climbing through and arching down as well, but they seem to like growing the other direction (away from the sun) toward the base of the JM. It looks ok, but hopefully better in the coming years. I don't have a good pic of it (yet) but here it is this spring with Sensu bottom left and Liberty on the right.

I do love it when Rooguchi blooms. You can almost see the JM here.

(Now have I totally hijacked this thread, or what?)

Love my Root Slayer Steve. The only drawback is the tapered end which doesn't hold a good quantity of soil. It simply can't be beat for chopping through small roots and cutting a nice clean edge. Chopping through BIG roots is just too much to expect.

- Jon

My eyes are playing tricks on me or I’m tired! Some of these posts are duplicates..

I’m sorry but it got rather busy with the grandkids. Ill come back when I can! ;-}