Hello, a couple questions.

I have 2 'Orange Dream' Japanese Maples in my front entrance (please see picture). Because of the design of my house, I am trying to achieve symmetry on either side (please excuse the obvious necessary prunning of the boxwood and lower limbs of the maple).

1. What is the best method to achieve this symmetry? FYI, the maple on the LEFT seems to be growing faster and appears healthier than the maple on the RIGHT (RIGHT maple also has thinning, see below). Trim LEFT until RIGHT catches up?

The Orange Dream, from what I've seen in mine and other pictures, is more shrub like and dense in foliage, and I'd like to maintain that (as opposed to the airy look of say, a bloodgood).

2. How should I address the thinning with the maple on the RIGHT (see photo). It's a good size section and if I were to cut it all back, it would look kind of odd (thinning is visible from either side of tree, as well as behind). Is there a potential disease at the root affecting this whole section? Can I add fertilizer? etc

Also, since it's June, is it a bad time to prune this tree? Im sure the small dead wood is fine, but I'd like to remove the low lying branches that are too low and interferring with the boxwood.

Thanks for your help

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