I’m a Japanese Maple Hypocrite

The other day I had my camera in the car and stopped to take a picture of what I consider the unpardonable sin—Japanese maples that look like Cousin It. 

The next day Russ and I were driving home together and I looked at the same house, and noticed that in the intervening time those japanese maples had been trimmed and no longer touched the ground.  I pointed it out to Russ and told him that I’d taken the picture to remind myself of what I didn’t want our japanese maples to look like.

As we drove in the driveway Russ pointed something out to me—

I don’t know how that happened—it must have been when they finished leafing out while I was out of town.  (Except for their bald heads—what’s with that?)  What I do know is that there is most certainly a youtube video on pruning japanese maples in my very near future…

 

PS—Even more than lollipop trees, japanese maples are very popular here in Oregon.  There’s practically one in every yard.  Why???