My Husband & Kids bought me a beautiful "Red Dragon" Acer palmatum dissectum for mother's day my daughter repotted it into an equal mix of compost, vermiculite & peat moss, and now it seems to be turning green on the ends... I've tried to research it and some posts and such say that it should keep it's color throughout the year but yet others say that depending on the species it could go from green to red, others have said that it could turn green if there's too much nitrogen-can someone clarify and let me know if I need to do something to fix it? I'm in Colorado and it receives good water, morning sun and partial sun in the afternoon... Thanks for any help! Annalisa
I agree with Chimera. The red leafed JMs can take a lot more sun than one might think. Granted, the lace-leaf cultivars usually like a little shade in the hottest part of the day in area's that see 90+ degree weather for any length of time, but even then, they should get tons of sun in the a.m and early afternoon. The more sun they have, the darker their beautiful color. If you see dry tips to the leaves or fading spots - that is likely too much sun. In am on the Eastern Shore of VA and my red dragons see sun all day until about 4p.m. You just have to find a balance, so just move that pot around. Good luck and let us know what happens!
This is true on the sun/shade issue. I can't grow my laceleafs in full sun here, but I've grown red dragon in full shade and it doesn't hold the color very long. I have found a good spot where it gets direct sun until around 1 pm and filtered for the rest of the day. It will green up on the interior and on the shady side of the tree faster, but overall the color holds pretty well into July with only minor tip burn. I've notice that it sometimes takes a year or two for them to settle down when they are transitioning from high fertility in nursery conditions to normal conditions. Sometimes young plants will not exhibit the better color of the parent. There is also the possibility that it was mislabeled.
in summer the leaves of some cultivar, are red/dark green! this is normal,i have jm Lions hearth, Sharon and s.Jasmine in total shade and the color remain red/dark green ; the new life conditions, different of the source ,is one possible cause... the Jm color are "correct"after two or more years,many people write about this in the forum,for es.Gomero see the correct color of s.Jordan after 3 years;in my garden Villa Taranto have the correct color after 4 years!! ciaooo
Thank you all for your replies! Off to more sun it is! =) I've always love them and it's such a beautiful little thing, I wanted to make sure I didn't kill it! =) Thanks a Bunch! Annalisa
Being recently repotted, you will likely want to keep a close eye on it in case it is not established well enough yet to take more sun.
