You could prune some of the lower branches from your maple, and that should let more light through to your bay window. I would wait until late fall, winter or early spring to prune it, however. Light pruning is OK at any time, but this would probably be on the heavy side.

I don't think you need to worry about the Japanese maple roots. They are shallow rooted, but are not aggressive like Red, Silver and some other larger maples.

I have never understood why so many people plant Japanese maples so close to their houses. I guess they buy them when the trees are real small and assume they won't get much larger. I see it all the time, however, where someone has planted a Japanese maple in a narrow confined space right near their house and then they have to prune is severely to try to make it fit. There is one house in my neighborhood where they planted a red dissectum variety right against their foundation and have pruned it up in a ball like it was a shrub or hedge. Yikes!

Here in the bay area california where most homes have smaller lots it is common to have the trees planted close to the houses. Seems about every 10th decently landscaped house there would be a red acer palmatum 6-8' tall near the entry way, most of them are maybe 4' away from the wall or maybe less. It seems to adapt pretty well though.

The picture posted, I cannot see the leaves but looks like it maybe a seiryu? It looks pretty, if you really decide to remove it let me know :)

My thought is that it takes experience to prune these trees nicely. Try to decide if there are any big branches that you want to remove all the way back to the main trunk, cut off half way now and in 6 months (winter) you could remove the rest of the branch so the tree will be in less shock.

You could check out wayofmaples.com for some pictures of pruned maples. She is really good and you may not agree with the style but it does reduce the size of the tree when done properly.

Thanks for the suggestions so far! We are not going to remove the tree, but I do like the idea of just removing some of the lower branches. I don't think I could do much more on my own. I'd be afraid I would ruin the tree. I'll probably remove some of the smaller ones now, and then wait to see if more need to go this winter.

Glad to hear that I don't have to remove it. Getting those horrible shrubs out from below is big enough for me right now.

I love seeing older specimens of JM. Is there anyway of persuading you to do another pic close up of the leaves to potentially see what cultivar this is?

Hope this helps! Thanks again!

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