What do I do with this misshapen acer?

[MilkWasABadChoice]

Hi
I adore acers so I planted one a few years ago at my new house. It’s in a sheltered south facing spot and has taken a while to get going. I know it’s not the ideal place.

Anyway. It’s just such a odd shape and I never dared to prune it because it kept threatening to die. Is it too late to try to give it some shape? Should I try to raise the canopy..?

(I hope there is a photo attached.)

look up when to prune acres. We had one where a whole branch died and so it had to be chopped off, i think around late winter time. pruning won’t harm it.

If you need to prune an Acer it should be done little and often. Don’t cut into any thick branches at the moment. Just trim away the excess wispy growth at the top. I would say around 24 inches.. Then leave t until midsummer and you can prune it gradually to get t to the shape you want.

Doing it slowly will prevent it going into shock.

Thank you both!

Yes afaik it is not advised to prune acers but as PP said , little and often if at all

It looks and sounds like an acer I had in my front garden for 7 years. The leaves at the top are sparser than lower down and mine often looked frazzled - I think because they caught a lot of the morning sun. The front of my house faces almost exactly North - the tree was basically in an exposed position - surrounded by other lower growing shrubs but it saw the sun all day and was never in any shade. It never really flourished, branched out or looked anywhere near as magnificent as I had hoped. After 7 years it never really grew much taller and really hadn't started to branch out sideways so I took the decision to dig it up and move it to a much shadier spot in the back garden. I had to chop through a couple of 1" thick roots - it felt brutal - it was established "below ground" but I was patient and tried my best to not damage too many roots - I was worried it might not react very wll to the move but honestly - it very quickly started to flourish - I made this video from some photos I took in the 7 months after I moved it in Nov 16.

(read the info I posted)

The tree also flowered for the first time 2.5 years year after I moved it - I'd never seen these blossoms before - maybe it was just related to maturity but it was by then 9.5 years old - it has continued to flower every year since. To look at the acer now in the photo I'll post you would be facing due south but the acer is now in a very shady spot because the back neighbours trees are much larger - where it is now it barely sees any direct sunlight. The label that said what the variety was said it was suitable for planting in both a sunny or a partial shaded position - I found that it was much happier in a much shadier spot. It's now one of the highlights in my garden - not just now because of the dramatic autumn colours but it looks great from late spring and all through the summer - especially when it flowers.

Is moving it a possibility? I only suggest this because mine IMHO struggled for 7 years and being honest, your doesn't look to me, as happy as it could be - mine really came to life in a much shadier spot. I have a lot of trees I have planted in my garden 3 different silver birches, 3 different magnolias, an amelanchier, a rowan, etc and the acer now looks very happy - a bit leggy - I might trip a few of the longer tips - a near neighbour cut his back quite noticeably about 2 years ago and it doesn't seem to have deterred it in any way - it is also in a very shady spot and was the tree that inspired me to get an acer. HTH