Hi all, I posted the photos in error before I got a chance to ask a question. The above tree is in my mum's garden, it's a v. wet site and she's just happy the plant is alive. I know it's not for spring pruning, I do see a lot of crossing branches and notice a crack in one branch. Can you advice what's the best thing to do with it? When can I prune it?
It looks mature enough to me to not need pruning. If you cut any of the touching trunks will make it look awful. This time of year you can only remove any dead ends that didn't make it past winter. If you wanted to prune anything else it's only possible when the Acer is dormant aka two/three months ago. If you do it now it will bleed sap and may seriously harm it. But really leave it alone, their natural shape is their most treasured feature...and they do like lots of water so can't imagine it's unhappy, looks like it's been there for quite a while.
I agree with to the above post other than it could be made simpler and more elegant with some careful pruning over a few years. I think with Acers that less is often more. I'd aim for an open structure like this but it will take a gradual approach. Worth it though!!
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Many thanks,