I happen to recently come across "The Bonsai Art of Japan" by Bjorvala Bonsai on YouTube. I find his videos very informative and extremely well done. (My wife even enjoys watching them with me). Here are some great videos on Japanese maples. They are techniques that can be applied to the landscape and to maples grown in container or as bonsai. I have been using most of these techniques for years and I find they work very well in my suburban garden with limited space. Even if you are not into bonsai, you will love the beautiful maples featured in the videos and the great information provided. Most are only 8 to 10 minutes long. I hope you enjoy! Pruning and refinement techniques: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z29rSrfEz8A (topic on Japanese maples starts at 3:06 on the player in case you want to skip the first topic) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KauXPxmiT5c (Developmental techniques) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zdEjZ-MiJU&list=UUMIZqKAtSetjReDVLvBV0tA&index=1&feature=plcp Here is a video on re-potting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OhuBvfJ8Xw&feature=relmfu
As I'm into bonsai myself, I had seen this link before: to me, that's the ultimate tutorial on how to style Japanese maple bonsai. For a garden tree, you'll have to adapt the technique though: it can take hours to properly prune and wire an 80 cm tree, usually part of the process is done by apprentices. The Chinese way to bonsai, such as Lingnan penjing, relies almost exclusively on pruning, with very little use of wiring, but the basics of cultivation are the same: balancing the sizes of the branches, and letting the air and the light into the inner part of the tree to keep it more compact and allow dormant buds to backbud. For instance, when a new shoot goes upward, instead of wiring it, they cut the twig after the first internode, then after letting it grow, they keep one of the new shoots that heads for the desired direction. Thus the fine ramification of Chinese penjing is usually much more angular than on a Japanese bonsai.
