Cheering ourselves up with Maples

Hi AlainK, that is amazing, wonderful form and colour. Shame I cant do 2 likes as my wife likes this as well. This is what cheering ourselves up thread is about. Thankyou.

 

Yes, it's an air-layer.

 

Nice. I was thinking airlaying mine this year but wasn't sure if it was a variety that layer easily. Thanks.

 

?

What do you mean ? Air-layering is quite easy.

Some cultivars or species are very easy to propagate this way. I've always tought that some cvs are not healthy on their own roots, others say all of them can reproduce from cuttings and will thrive, as many people, as many opinions it seems ;°)

But some like 'Orange dream' and a few others can be reproduced this way.

 

I've tried:
Orangela - no
Shishigashira - very easy
Palmatum - very easy
Bloodgood - easy
Rhode Island Red - didn't work the first time but trying it again
I will be trying quite a few varieties this year to see what kind of success I have.

I think i watched a YouTube video or read somewhere of someone not having success with certain varieties is the reason I was curious.

 

I was lucky this morning, car windscreen was iced but none of my Acers were frost burned. Wilson’s pink dwarfed is always the one hat suffers the most.

 

I was too , frost caught a few leaves on Katsura but that's it. Glad yours are ok. Made sure I watered all well after frost was clear. Frost does take all the moisture out of plants!! We do suffer from growing these trees in this country ; In Japan I'm not aware of 'Spring' frosts, hence no stunting of new growth and their trees flourish.
Looks like cold winds this weekend, might need to protect the delicate ones I think.

 

Hey ,a couple more pics of my maples. The first is shojo no mai,ryusen,and kinky krinkle.

 

Hi Castor,a very elegant Ryusen, Shojo no mai and Kinky Krinkle are two very interesting cultivars. Neither of which are available in the UK so it's a treat to see them , thankyou

 

I only have Ryusen, the others you mention are new to me. I have 2 Ryusen, trouble free, puts on good growth and both trees have formed a beautiful shape on there own. It makes for a nice looking tree.

 

One of my 'Beni komachi' has begun to leaf out:



A small 'Peaches and Cream', full of flowers:



'Shishigashira':



'Sango Kaku':



'Deshojo' - I've already posted photos of this one, but it's so beautiful you never get tired of admiring it ;°) :



A couple of Acer palmatum somethingum, actually some seeds from the 2016 seed exchange, "Acer palmatum mix". these 3 are among the fastest-growing. The dark red one doesn't keep its colours very long in the season:

 

Hi AlainK, certainly cheered me and my wife up looking at these vibrant colours. As you are a couple of weeks ahead of us in England, your photos have shown what is to come with ours. Re your seedlings, aren't they exciting and fun as you never know what you get!! Thanks.

 

Although a fair few of mine have leafed out, all the cultivars you show have yet to leaf and are always some of the last to wake up.

 

I know this isn’t a maple but I thought it was of interest.. it was in a metal rubbish bin now moved into a larger home

 

Beautiful !

What is it ? When wa the photo taken?

 

Hi dicky5ash, well saved. A mixture of trees in a garden is so important. My wife and I have many different trees and amongst them are our maple collection. Yours will brighten that corner beautifully in the Autumn.

 

Hi Alain,

The photo was taken in October..will check the name of the tree..the name card on it has disintegrated.


Hoping you and your family are well and safe.

kind regards
Rich

 

Checking in from East Tennessee where everything is beginning to wake up (:

Aka shigitsu sawa
Lileeanne’s Jewel
Vitifolium
Asahi Zuru
Maiku jaku
Seiun kaku
Koto no ito
Acer micranthum
Acer truncatum

 

Hi kgeezy20, lovely to see yours waking up in Tennessee. Particularly like your Aka Shigitatsu sawa.
Rather chilly and grey here in England so your photos are a pick me up. Thankyou.

 

Today's pics:

'Hana Matoi':


'Tsuma Gaki' (one of my favourite!):


''Trompenburg':


'O-sakazuki', finally beginning to leaf out:


Another favourite of mine, 'Beni Hagoromo'. One set of leaves is a bit different, on a branch with lots of flowers:



But from what I've read somewhere, I think I know why this branch has so many flowers while there are almost none on the others... I'll post photos and explanations later - suspense! ;0)

 

Hi AlainK, gorgeous photos, your not using a mobile phone are you!!?
Looking forward to more and your explanation. My wife and I love Hana Matoi, it is a new addition to our collection so still quite small, your photo shows what we can expect this year. Thankyou.

 

A what?... What's that?... ^^

Seriously, when the kids would see me drawing my "mobile phone", they either laughed or said "Wow, this is a real vintage mobile phone!". I use a Canon SX20/S (which will also soon be an antique piece, the date doesn't work any longer, they're all 01/01/1980...). And I edit most of my photos with IrfanView (crop, resize, brightness, contrrast,.. to try and have the closest to nature colour I can get)

 

Hi AlainK, now that's bringing smiles to our faces, lol. Just added two more of ours. Taken with a mobile phone !!!! New camera on my xmas list I think. Shishigashira and Aconitifolium both just starting.

 

So, this is the whole story:

As a bonsai enthusiast, I use several methods to get basic material:

- growing from seeds : a long process for such an old man like me, but maybe one of the best way to learn, and control what design you have in mind;
- cuttings : for maples, it's a bit like the previous method since it's difficult to root large cuttings (winter cuttings, when the tree is dormant), but summer cuttings work well for most cultivars;
- air-layering: the best method to get starter trees with a decent trunk width, and it's very easy with most J. maples (not to mention Acer buergerianum). Two options:
-- 1/ the "tourniquet" method, consisting of securing tightly a wire around where you want roots to grow.
-- 2/ peeling off a ring of bark (1,5 the diameter of the trunk), making sure the cambium is removed.

I started to use a mix of both methods which is how some proceed in Japan with a beech (Fagus) after reading an article translated from Japanese in a bonsai magazine.

Then I decided to apply it in a different way: since to me, the best period to air-layer J. maples is after the first flush of growth, I put a tight ring of wire around the branch before the tree buds out. When it grows, it develops a "flare" at the base. Then from late May to mid-July, I remove the wire and expose the cambium as in /2.

But I didn't have time to do it on this 'Beni Hagoromo', so in autumn, I removed the wire, but the bark was badly damaged:



Since then, I read somewhere that when the sap flow is reduced in a branch, it produces more flowers. Like every empirical observation, it needs more cross-information, but that might be the reson why.

Since I don't have a greenhouse to keep it above zero (Celsius), I'll wait before the temeratures are a little higher, but I'll definitely air-layer it. I will probably remove most of the flowers before.

 

Hi AlainK, the air layering method is a very successful way to get a perfect clone of a treasured favourite maple together with aged trunk. I have seen recently very large trees being propagated in this way. If you haven't seen the Herons bonsai video on this subject on YouTube it's well worth watching. (Amazing size trees being air layered).
I think over the next several months we will all have a bit more time available to spend time reading and watching methods of propagation on YouTube to give us a bit more knowledge. Just trying to put a positive spin ( if there is one) on this awful situation we are all in atm.
LOTS MORE SPRING PHOTOS FROM UBC MEMBERS PLEASE?