Acer palmatum 'Waterfall'

This is a photo of a two year old Waterfall taken in April of 2003. It has since been transplanted and hopefully will continue to mature.

 

Acer palmatum dissectum 'Waterfall'

Richard, that is a nice thick little plant. I can hardly believe that it is only two years old. It must have gotten plenty of light. They say that this cultivar will handle full sun quite well. Your location must be very good for growing Japanese Maples. Much better than your previous locations, Australia & Ireland, lol. I am attaching a few pics of a 'Waterfall' that I obtained as a 1g plant back in 97' or 98'. I grew it in the 1 gallon container for 2-3 years then bumped it up into a 3g and have kept it in the shade. I noticed a good spreading growth habit with this cultivar. The canopy certainly is not as full as is yours and I attribute that to the dense shade that I have held it in. Just imagine what this one would look like if I had planted it in the landscape with a good deal of sun. For that matter bumped it up into a 10g or 15g container and gave it more light. I sometimes have a difficult time deciding where to plant my trees. I need to clear my woods a bit better. Almost everywhere I clear I have plans of laying out rows of containers. There needs to be a balance between nursery blocks and installed plant material. Two of these pictures were made 3-28-03, one in the day and one at night. The other picture was made in November 2002 and shows some fall color.

 

That is an amazingly healthy looking tree for such a small pot. I am hoping to get a 'waterfall' this season :)

 

Waterfall update

Thanks for the compliments on my little 'Waterfall' maple, purchased from a local nursery last March for $20 as part of a Winter clearance sale. The age was obtained from the seller's records so I can't only go on how old it is from their records. Now the bad news, this picture was from late April 2003 and the tree did very well on the stone patio in that pot until late July when because of a vacation I did not water it for 5 days. Upon my return home I discovered that 3/4 of the leaves had burned and the plant never recovered these leaves during the Fall. It received 4-5 hours of direct sunlight on the patio but has now be planted in a semi-shady bank. I hope it will fully recover this Spring as it looks pretty good.

 

If it still looks good I think you are going to be lucky.
Now DON'T do that again LOL

 

'Waterfall'

My 'Waterfall' looks a lot better this season since I moved it into more light. Just think what it would do if I planted it into the landscape. Photo made 4-18-04.

 

While I always enjoy the Spring/Summer form, style and color of Waterfall, I appreciate it more in the autumn when it goes yellow. It's pretty outstanding. This photo was taken October 18, 2006.

 

Mapledia, thank you for posting that — now I know I have something really special to look forward to! Bought it on impulse at nursery because I couldn't resist the shape. :)

 

Lisasmall, you won't be disappointed. I have had 2 Waterfalls in my garden for several years, and they never fail to amaze. They require almost no effort in maintaining a beautiful shape, and when they turn yellow/gold in the autumn, they hold the color for many weeks. They are also extremely hardy and resistant to disease. I think you are going to love this cultivar.

 

The US National Arboretum, late May, 2006.

 

Here are my AP Waterfalls. The pictures were taken today Oct. 13, 07. Two are green yet, and the other has changed to red three weeks ago (?), even with all of them with same sun expousure.

 

Hey Nelran,

That's quite a collection of great looking trees you have there! 'Waterfall' is a great choice for Texas. I was always amazed at how well it did - even into the summer when all the others were crispy. It will need MAJOR shade though - if only in the afternoon.

'Pretty weird about that ONE of the three going red, though. I am thinking you may have another cultivar there. It will be neat in a group planting though, to have them all so similar most of the year, then BAM an autumn surprise. You'l have to keep an eye on the shape and habit of that newly red one. There are MANY green laceleafs that can be nearly indestinguishable (at least until one turns red :) ). Fun experiment.

Thanks for the pics.

 

My girlfriend brought this one home from the 04 Philadelphia Flower Show (Eastwoods Nursery). It's a beauty, exotic form, grows great, lovely bark, nice autumn color.

This plant has had issues with Squirrels.


Pics taken on a very gray, warm October day.

 

Thanks Katie. Yes, I'm a little bit excited with the fall color of my maples, you know this is my fist season with them. So with more mild temperatures here (around 50-60), I decided to move my potted maples to the east side (as pictured), for my confort and to get them some sun.
The picture shows the three Waterfalls, a Oshio Beni, Shuminagashi, two of my Sango Kakus (one of them already in ground), a bloodgood; and far away a Seryu and a Shaina (w/o leaves for that moment). Las week arrived my new tiny adquisitions: The shirasawanums cultivars, one Aureum full moon, one Autumn Moon and a very tiny Aconitifolium (dancing Peakcock). They are pretty small (1 gal size) so I need to baby them. I'm planning to get a good specimen of AP 'tsuma gaki' and one Otaki soon.
I already read that you increased your collection to almost a hundred cultivars! amazing, put some pictures of your collection, soon.

See ya!

Nelson

 

From later observations, I think that the "red" waterfall was mislabeled. I think this cultivar is 'Garnet', but I'm not sure. How would I know?

 

Whew...good luck IDing a red laceleaf. I'm not sure you can ever be 100 percent sure, or at least not in any short period of time. There are just too many cultivars with very similar habit and coloration, and they never seem to have the same coloration or habit in different areas. There are also so many mislabeled specimens that you can hardly find a mature one to compare it with. For example I know of 3 different specimens at a local botanical garden all labeled crimson queen, and I'm positive that they are all different. I also know that there are two specimens labeled inaba shidare, but neither are the true inaba shidare. To add to your confusion, the original garnet is not as common as we would think. Also, they typical description of Garnet being a fast growing laceleaf are not exactly true for the original form from what I understand (I do know I have one labeled Garnet that is fairly slow, but I can't say I'm 100 percent sold that it is the true form even though it matches the color and leaf shape well). You will definetaly have to watch it for a couple of years to get a good idea of what it truely is. After all, you can only efficiently compare the leaves of mature wood (usually 3 year old), because the typical texture, size, shape and coloration don't show up on younger growth. Nevertheless, good luck. Maybe you can get more clarity on these types than I've been able to.

 

Matt,

Thanks for your observations and advise. Although I already read a lot of info about JMs, (including most of the books related to JMs) and seen hundred of pics of different cultivars, I'm new in this field. So You're right, probably it will take some time to really evaluate this cultivar and finally name it. In fact, one of my main tasks (amog caring and baby them) is to take pics of each JM of my collection along different seasons and time of the year. Actually I'm building individual "files" for each JM in order to evaluate grow, colour, habits, form and development among other factors. With enough info (and with the help of this website) I think that sooner or later I will be able to name it.

 

That's certainly a possibility. Personally, if I lost a tag, I'd never try and name something if it ever were to be propagated. That's just unethical. Then again, maybe your purpose will bring you closer to learning stuff and that's good.

Later,

Dax

 

Dax,
I'm NOT trying to propagate my JMs (hardly I'm just trying to keep this plants alive and healty here in Houston). I'm only a JM collector with the hobby to learn more from these beatiful plants and just want to find out if one of my JMs is really what supposed to be. My presumtion about this plant could be a 'Garnet' (I never tagged it) was that when I bought both trees (thinking they were 'waterfall') they were closer to a group of AP 'garnet'. Anyway probably all of this are only supositions and at the end I could discover that finally is a waterfall with a young erratic behavior. I'm not a seller or propagator (furthermore I'm a compulsive buyer of JMs!).
This year I'm thinking to upload some pics of this JM (I will take them during different seasons) in order to ask for help in its identification.

nelran

 

That's the reason I wrote such a broad answer. Two seperate thoughts nelran.

Dax

 

One of my favorites, aptly named if I do say so myself

 

Here is my Waterfall. It is about 5 feet high and wide.

 

Quite lovely! I can't wait for mine to get that big - its just a 1 gallon. Can you tell me the growth rate? How long has your tree been in that spot?

Thanks!

K4

 

I bought it this spring and planted it at that time as well. The grower claimed it was somewhere around 6 years old.

 

Thank you!