Post a close up of the leaf as well.

It's a beautiful tree, so I hope you'll post some current pics of what makes it a "mess" this year in either the Trees or Maples forums for help with it. I can't tell if you mean it's diseased or needs clean up pruning or? There are some very knowledgeable people in those forums, as Gardengal says. I'm sure they'll try to help. You can also look thru the previous posts to see if someone else has posted the same issue. Good luck!

Details of leaf, flower and fruit structures may be needed to be shown in order for useful suggestions of possible named selections to result. For instance it can matter if the fruits are green or red. Otherwise there is some history of purple seedlings - as in specimens raised from seed - being sold, so that if yours is one of these it is not a genuine example of any clonal cultivars like 'Atropurpureum'* or 'Bloodgood'.

*As opposed to var. atropurpureum

It is a pretty tree, and Gardengal is correct. You need to post over in the Tree forum or Japanese Maple forum with a photo of a leaf to be certain and even then it may be hard to pin down. Does the tree have a problem? Did you have a drought last year? One of my JM's is suffering some this year from last year's drought and it was even watered from our sprinkler system. Yours appears to get sun on top but the root area is shaded and hasn't been trimmed up around the bottom.

Your tree appears to have a natural vase shape (rather than a weeping form or rounded form of JM), so those lower branches could be trimmed off. This is the best time of year to trim.

Just for clarification, atropurpureum is now considered to be a grex or naturally occurring varietal rather than a specific cultivar. It is only one of two forms (the other being the straight species) that comes true from seed.

Thanks all, I am going to get a photo of a leaf and go over to garden web in the tree category. It is now very sparce and just looks unhappy. I will include a photo of now though we have had a wet cold spring, so everything is behind schedule.

I am going to have to wait a few more days because the leaves are just out but still curled up. In a few days if we ever get some sun maybe I can get a decent photo to post on the tree forum. Thanks

Lyban, I think part of your problem is that the surrounding trees, like the one to the right in the second photo, are crowding it and not allowing it to get much sun. See how it's reaching toward the sun in its growth?

In case anyone else needs help identifying any type of plant or tree etc the forum Name That Plant here in the GW gardens forums is a wonderful resource. Such amazing intelligent folks there helping others.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/namegal

Name that plant, very active

Name That Plant will not be so great for trying to identify a specific cultivar of any plant. For that you really need one of the specialty forums, in this case the Maples forum. As I mentioned initially, it is very difficult to narrow down a specific ID on any Japanese maple cultivar. I am considered locally as a JM expert as I have grown and sold hundreds of these trees over the years and have an extensive knowledge of them. But it is still very difficult to nail down a specific cultivar..........I could name a dozen or more that look like the tree in the photo, at least superficially.

btw, as I also mentioned previously, you do NOT need to know the specific name in order to identify a problem. The difference with various JM's is only in their appearance - they are all grown the same way, cared for the same way and can suffer the same ailments regardless of what they are called :-)) But we do need to see clear and detailed photos of the problem (in addition to a description of how it is struggling) to be able to diagnose the issue. Post these in the Maples forum for expert advice on these trees, not the more general Trees forum.

OK Gardengal, I will for sure post over in the Maples forum but I will wait a few days and hope to get a closeup of the leaf and some more photos of the whole tree and surrounding area. I am also going to ask if it could be moved at this point or if it is too old.

A few years ago my 90 year old Japanese maple began suffering from verticillium wilt, a fungal disease . Though no cure, my tree specialist said with fertilizer injections in the surrounding soil and proper pruning and sealing of dead limbs many trees recover but he had no guarantees. My very old maple is flourishing today. We now do the injections every other year. Here is a simple article about maple wilt. Call a specialist perhaps to diagnosis the issue and maybe explore treating the growing conditions favorably.

the bark often gives clues to tree health as much as the leaves. We tried moving older Japanese maples with mixed results. Two survived while two failed.

Good luck! http://www.mercurynews.com/2012/05/31/master-gardener-verticillium-wilt-threatens-japanese-maples/

What makes the tree look like a "disaster" and "unhappy"? If it's just leafing out, it's too early to tell. All maples have some winter die-back. I trim a good amount from my neighbor's Bloodgood every spring because they ignore it and it's on our property line. Even my baby JM has winter kill.

You need to give it a good pruning, that's a start. The suckers at the bottom trunk should re removed first, and when that is finished, it needs to be shaped. My Crepe Myrtles are pruned/trimmed very much the same~some trees are pruned from the bottom, others from the top. This will determine the shape. You *can* do it yourself by reading the how to's on line or even watch a you tube video. I cut the suckers off, sometimes more than once during te summer months, but have a landscaper(not a gardner!)do the pruning. They're very beautiful trees when all trimmed out.

atropurpureum is now considered to be a grex or naturally occurring varietal rather than a specific cultivar. It is only one of two forms (the other being the straight species) that comes true from seed.

There is an old clonal cultivar 'Atropurpureum' with specific characteristics still in production as well as all the material referable to f. atropurpureum, a term which simply means that the leaves are red or purple, and can be applied to any Japanese maple with those characters. Whether any one of these also has additional naming or not. For instance A. palmatum f. atropurpureum 'Atropurpureum' and so on through the entire list of red or purple, vegetatively propagated cultivars.

I doubt all purple Japanese maples produce purple seedlings all of the time. In fact I have seen them with mixtures of green and purple seedlings coming up beneath them. And the incorrect seed-raised stock of 'Bloodgood' that has been on the local market in the past has included nearly green specimens.

A grex is a cross, these plants are not hybrids. Varietal is a wine term.

The one that my boss and I used to collect (purple) seeds from, produced roughly 90% purplish youngsters.