Japanese Maple Pruning

Submitted by dances-with-poodles t3_1213zss in rva

I have a couple of ornamental Japanese Maples in the back yard that are getting a little wild. I’d love advice on how to do it myself or any recommendations for someone local that I could hire.

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[deleted] t1_jdl7i7d wrote

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dances-with-poodles OP t1_jdpkxq6 wrote

I have a few Japanese maple trees, and they’re all challenging, but this is awesome advice especially for the Waterfall. Trimming the sideways branches obstructing other branches will be a pretty straightforward method I think I could handle. The one that’s really confusing to me is the Twombly’s red Sentinel. It’s supposed to be columnar but most of its new growth is in the direction of the sun. So I’ve got 3 big branches at the “front” that are projecting out from closer to the base, preventing it from being a true “column”. But they’re pretty substantial branches at this point, so I don’t want to stub them but I also don’t want to loose all of their foliage coverage closer to the trunk. I haven’t really ever used yelp to be honest, but that’s a good recommendation. I guess I’d be looking for “ornamental arborists”? It’s pretty niche, but I’ll check it out. I’ve only ever hired an arborist for complete tree removal of a 30’ pine, so I don’t think I’d rely on them with these trees.

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lunar_unit t1_jdkbq6e wrote

Tons of YouTube videos on that. Search 'pruning Japanese maples'

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dances-with-poodles OP t1_jdkdfn0 wrote

I watched some YouTubes last year recommended by a guy at Cross Creek, but I can’t remember the name of the pruner now. Do you have some favorites? The volume of information is a little overwhelming which is why I posted the question on reddit instead of (really in addition to) googling.

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lunar_unit t1_jdo2yiy wrote

We use Fabscapes for some of our yard and tree stuff. Jim and his team are timely and nice to deal with. Send them an email or phone call and see if they'd be someone you'd want to work with.

https://www.fabscapes.com/

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dances-with-poodles OP t1_jdpjdsc wrote

This is awesome - thank you. It looks like they do ornamental trees, so I’ll definitely reach out. I actually have one that’s more of a waterfall style, for which I semi-understand the general shaping method, but my Twombly’s red sentinel is totally stumping me. It’s supposed to be columnar and there are a few branches that I’m having a hard time making decisions on, and then if they go, where is the best place to cut. I swear these trees are so complex. I think an expert would really help me.

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