...Maple wins. I have these 2 mature trees on my property. One day I look up and notice that one of my Maple trees is in the process of strangling the life out of the North side of my magnificent Blue Spuce. Surely the previous owner planted them too close together (20+ feet away), but I suppose that would have been hard to see 40 years ago. I have trimmed back the Maple to allow space (and light!) but now the question is what do I do with the dead and failing branches. My current plan is to have the tree service back in the Spring to clear these rather than to do it before Winter. Note: the top 10 feet or so of the Blue Spruce was not affected and is in good shape. Advice is welcome.
I was called about pruning and tree removal today. Suggested saving the hemlock and maple side by side rather than cutting the hemlock down, simply because the evergreen shades the sunset side and the maple would get hammered with sunburn during sunsets. Had they switched places, different story. In this case, going to prune both trees as an imaginary single tree canopy. Hemlock handles light shade better than blue spruce though. Understand your situation. We have similar at our home. And I'm deciding what to keep and what to remove.
