I have this beautiful Japanese maple in a pot. It is fully mature, and I've had it for a few years now. I'm realizing that despite being full-size, it will still require pruning to maintain it's shape and I've been neglecting it for the past couple years.
The "skirt" has outgrown the "veil," which not only looks weird, but causes issues in the summer as the bottom leaves demand too much water, and the top leaves dry out (watering being an issue since it's in a pot). I do now have it hooked up to an automatic irrigation system, so it's better, but still.
Additionally, I love the leaf coverage of the upper part of the tree, as you can see the really cool branch formations. With the added leaf coverage down lower, you couldn't.
So I did some research on how to prune Japanese maples. Although it isn't an ideal time, I decided to get the process started anyway. I removed 1 major branch from the right and several smaller branches from the bottom in general. I tried not to remove too much this one time, and will adhere to the advice to stretch the shaping out over a 2-3 year period to avoid stressing the tree too much. Pruning, especially for shape, is a new skill for me - I have some blueberries and rosemary that I prune annually but mostly just for health.
But even so, I say it's already improved:
