At my brother's house, he has a traditional Japanese landscaped yard, including a couple of overgrown Japanese Maple trees.

After the Thanksgiving holiday he asked me to help him prune these pair of Japanese Maples, and so I agreed to help him.

Even though I have never pruned a full sized Japanese Maple of this size, I have had years of practice pruning my various bonsai trees and our own hedge type trees.

Intro to Niwaki

Small trees grown in the earth are called Niwaki, in the Japanese style, which I have studied how to design and maintain. They are artistically formed with the same aesthetic principles as bonsai, except no wire is ever used. Instead they wrap branches, and bend using wooden beams or pull using rope or string. Any wrapped branches and support systems are expertly integrated, strange to Western standards, as a beautiful component supporting the entire design.

The pair of trees I am working on do not have any manipulated branches requiring wraps, however they could be if a drastic style change was requested.

Strategy

Initially when I first started, my brother came out with an electric hedging power tool, and gave both trees a quick wack around the edges. I pointed out the thick stubs on the branch ends are caused by hedging shears in years past, and could be worse if someone like our dad decided to take a power tool to it. My dad often saws off all the interesting low framework of branches extending from the trunk, leaving what I call a totem pole covered in stump ends, which can weaken and kill a tree while also turning it into a shockingly ugly eyesore that is hard to not look at.

Then I proceeded to say I won't be using the same tactic, and instead would focus on removing dead branches, criss-crossing branches rubbing into one another, and limbs heading backwards into the center of the tree.

The above photo is the result of my work after finishing the first tree.

All the twisty branches are natural occuring due to the weeping nature of the tree, meaning the branches tend to grow in an angle that always bends downward as it lengthens.

Some Weirdness

When I finished the first tree I observed the strangest mutation, the first of its kind I had ever seen.

The biggest branches splitting from the trunk, they wove back in many years ago, and it made a lateral branch that conjoined! The bark grafted onto itself so cleanly, it created a natural arch support to provide strength to hold up everything above it. It actually conjoined in two or three additional places. So weird. Let it be.

This is the second tree which I started to work on the next day.

It had a ton of dead leaves bundled up on top.

90% of the material I removed, leaves and stems, were already dead, and I could simply rake it out with my gloved hands.

Identifying Which Limbs to Remove

It is very easy to tell dead limbs from live ones this time of year. The live limbs have green bark and are very elastic. The dead ones snap apart with the slightest touch and are brown with no shine.

Die-back is a natural occurrence all trees experience. Any weak or stressed branches will die, from temperature extremes, the rebalance of water and nutrients to support the rest of the tree, or simply part of the deciduous nature of shedding leaves during winter dormancy.

On thicker branches, I always examine closely which part is living and which parts are dead by following it back towards the trunk. With a scratch test, I can see if the bark is green underneath, but I really don't need to keep scratching additional branches after I get used to recognizing the differences visually and by feel. Often times the living wood will also callous around the collar of a branch that died off. This marking is a clear indicator of where the tree is asking to have a dead branch pruned off.

Here are the results from cleaning up the second tree.

Each tree took about three hours of work.

I avoided any major restyling of these trees, and sought to simply open things up so the living branches can receive as much sunlight as possible.

The last little details involved pruning off the big stubs and crossing branches. I did my best to make sure thick branches on the far ends were instead ending with slender new stems with buds dividing in two opposite directions, or at least a single stem heading off in a slightly new direction. Any long shoots, sometimes called "eye pokers" 👀 were shortened to a pair of buds further back.

Conclusion

It was appreciated that I could finally do something helpful for my brother. He is a disabled veteran with prosthetic lower legs. Growing up, he considered me annoying and didn't get along well with me, or have many friends.

It has been about two years since he bought this house, and he probably doesn't realize, or doesn't care, that this was the first time he actually invited me over personally, even though I have previously offered help for his yard work in the past. I leave him alone, and he prefers it that way.

Honestly I could see myself helping others to prune their trees into a better shape than they would get from a lawn care worker who barely operates more than a leaf blower. In fact, I would do this freely for most people as long as the tree is not too tall.

Ideally word could get around, and maybe I can work out a few annual contract offers with a few people. I used to trade freelance work for a home cooked dinner, and conversation, and I do miss that kind of exchange.

Photos in this post are all #originalworks by @creativetruth, unless stated otherwise.