I got this tree in late June of last year from The House Of Bonsai in Lakewood CA. My plan for this tree is quite simple... The trunk is fairly mature, but the branch structure is immature. I will be pruning the secondary shoots here in a few days to promote shorter inner nodes for the 2nd set of leaves. I will continue to do that until the tree has a very fine and dense branch structure. I will most likely wait a while before I apply any wire because the branches are roughly in the place I want them to be. I had a few minor issues with the tree last year. One of the problems was tar spots. I read that Japanese Maples get these from time to time and they are not that harmful to the tree. I would remove them with my fingernail when one would appear before it had a chance to harm the leaf. The main issue I had was sunburn in the late summer. We had a brutally hot summer here in Northridge (100+ for days). I will need to acquire some sort of shading for this summer. All of my other trees thrived in the hot summer months. The only tree I have that hates the heat is this maple.
Here are some pictures of it with mature foliage.
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