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Not huge, but to use your words, not a mop shrub either. I have two of those in my yard, and the total height of the two are twenty feet tops, with an umbrella effect.
Can they be pruned? How long did it take to grow that large?
I was looking for the mop version – feels like a waste of money for this space as it will be too big. Can you send a link to a mature version of your maple. Thanks!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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You can prune Japanese Maples down to just a trunk, and if you do it at the right time (late winter) it will sprout from the stub. I do bonsai and have several, one of the techniques for developing a thing trunk and flared base is a "trunk chop". They take it much better than most other trees.
Looks to me like it was planted in a good spot, and the person who did it knew what s/he was doing.
Go price them in your local nursery before you decide to mess with it. Come to think of it, take in a twig with several leaves attached and your photo, they might have an idea which varieties it might be.
And please, if you do decide you don't want it, advertise it on craig's list. Someone will be happy to come dig it up and pay you some money for it.
Edited to add - depends on what you mean by laceleaf, most japanese maples have finely cut leaves. But yes, once I got your image to load, I would call this one a laceleaf.
Yup, I have one. I am training it to grow straight up by bending the natural curve at the top back up straight by tying the trunk with a rope to a strong bamboo pole. I want the shrub to grow up taller before it mops out so that it overhangs my tall Orientpet lilies that grow in front of it. The Orientpet lilies reach a good 6 to 7 feet in height and so the japanese maple in back of them needs to grow higher than that. Each year, it gains roughly a foot or so, and I should get it up to about 7 feet before it mops out in about 2 to 3 years. I love the japanese maple because you can do anything you want to it...bend it, twist it, chop off its branches....and it'll love you for the attention. A perfect domesticated tree.
Thank you both. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't buy the tree version
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