I would prune away the dead growth and then give it some time to grow new branches.

^^^ I would do the same and give it at least another year. Hopefully your patience will be rewarded and it matures as beautifully as your other one.

I have a 25-year old paperbark maple planted at the corner of my house. The nursery designer placed it so you see it coming up my front stairs which run adhacent to the house front. Great views of big “cinnamon curls” especially in winter when you come up the steps or open the front door.

Paperbark maples and coral bark maples are worth the wait!

I have one and I love it mostly because I have, in my mind’s eye, the image of the first one I saw at Harvard University ’s off campus arboretum. Unlike yours, Porkchop, or my 10 year old one, it had a sturdy, fat trunk with big pieces of shiny mahogany bark hanging off it.

Mine hasnt suffered insults like yours, but it certainly slow growing and still scraggly, with little of the impact I imagined. The crown is thin.

All this is by way of offering encouragement: give it another season or three unless it really annoys you every time you see it, in which case get rid of it and replace it with something that gives you pleasure.

Or perhaps you have another spot that

”needs” a tree. Plant one there now and if you decide to take out acer griseum you won’t have wasted ”tree years” waiting for it to thrive. It may not be in the genes, judging how mine looks 10 years in.

i have several other small trees and none of them is perfect. what other trees have you got, and what do you think of them?

will it need taller protection frommarauding deer or giant rabbits in winter ? Come January it will look like tasty treat to those hungry demons

^^Yes; I will take care of that later in the year. For now I have to protect against rubbing.

Sorry about your tree . I’m sure it will eventually recover if the root damage is not to severe. Over the years a few of my trees have survived thru many wild life attacks, storms and insects.

I have several issues with mule deer, pronghorn and the entire herd. They come right up on my porch and eat the lilies right out of the pots. Even high fences, or electric wire had not disswayed them from their snack bar. A couple years ago I tried Plantskyyd and it works great, I use the pellets and have not had an issue since. I put it down once a during the growing season .

So glad to hear a shout out for Plantsydd. i use it and its very effective. It is not widely sold in bricks ’n mortar stores but its availble from their website and amazon. i wonder if thats a deterrent for people. A lot of people are still using cayenne or egg concoctions and still complaining they dont work.

Marie tulin bosten happy to hear plantskyyd works well for you too. it’s not only effective as a repellent for deer , also rabbits, raccoons any herbivore , from what they claim it sets off the fear reaction of a predator near by.

my roses are very happy too.

I can find Plantskyyd at a nursery around here. I use Messina's "Stopper" products (Animal Stopper, Deer Stopper, etc). They're in the red container. I find them interchangeable, they all seem to work well.

But, with the trees -- one good rubbing session and the tree might be good for nothing but the wood pile. It's happened to me, most recently with a very nice apricot tree -- deader than a doornail in the spring, the bark damage was too great. My fault. I got involved with other things and didn't get the guard up in time.

I don't trust that the sprays will work well enough against rubbing and once the damage is done it's done. Mid-July is when I will put up the trunk guards for the season -- that's about when the deer rubbing starts around here. The paperbark will have that mesh wrap up around the lower branches with a different guard around the trunk (so I can use the mesh at the top.

I was so mad when the deer got that primary branch on the other paperbark. I had a trunk guard up but they went after the branches; I didn't expect that. It was broken off, I suspect they might have been rubbing and got their antlers stuck and it broke off; I cut it off and it healed well but it did change the shape of the tree. There is rub damage on the other primary side branch, but I caught it in time to put the fencing up higher so major damage averted. Those buggers -- leave the chore for tomorrow and bam! they'll get it.

Well porkchop you tried your best to save that tree. maybe it will make it , or not. time will tell. sometimes nature gets the best of us when we least expect it. i got stories that would knock your socks off about the damage to my trees and garden. remember that old butter commercial 70’s 8o’s…”It’s not nice to fool mother nature”. well she knows and wins the battle in the long run. move on …we have all been there at one time or another… i hope that‘s the end .

I feel fortunate that the antlered rats only go after my hosta. They venture further and further into the garden. Where they go Plantskydd follows( granted , too late for complete protection)

Yes product is available in stores but very few compared to other products and only ready spray & small bags of pellets which are not economical.

i once tried the concentrate and it looked like the Chainsaw Massacre and smelled like an abbatoire. Primary ingredient: porcine blood. Wish I could unknow that.