I received a Japanese maple about 1.5 months ago through a mail order and it hasn't grown since. It looks about the same, maybe a little taller than I got it and it appears fuller but hasn't grown any new leaves. It was shipped to me in a small plastic pot with the leaves on it. I re-potted in in a 6inch ceramic pot and placed it on my window behind the mesh screen. Is there any reason why it's not showing any new leaves? Could it be because its behind the screen or because it was shipped? I have another maple I got from a friend right here in NY and after a few weeks its growing tons of new leaves. Thanks.
if at all possible you will need to keep your maples outside, unless you are able to simulate the 4 seasons for them, they need this cycle to survive and will eventually burn themselves out from having no winter rest period. I believe your maple is just recovering from shipping, i got a japanese maple in the mail in early may and its just starting to show new growth...trees arent meant to be shipped in the mail and they suffer a bit afterwards, its a good idea to wait to do any work with this maple untill next spring, just let it recover and gain strength for right now...good luck with it
Maples, also, tend to have one big annual growth spurt, in spring. They may add some additional leaves later in the season, but you can't count on that. And many trees, not just maples, spend the first year adjusting to their new growing conditions. Your tree probably put on its annual growth at the nursery, before it was shipped. Corcor is right: these trees won't work as house plants.
Thanks for the input :) I guess I didn't explain it clearly. The maple that's not growing is on the window sill of a window that's never closed. The only thing that is btwn it and the sun/outdoors is a mesh screen. Is that alright or should I move it outside completely?
As long as that window is open all day, every day of the year thats fine, the mesh screen will only filter some of the sun light, but if you plan on closing it for the winter, you need to find somewhere else to keep it. In the summer trees are taking in sun and nutrients and storing as much energy as they can, when fall hits they harden off all of the current years growth then begin to drop their leaves. Winter time the trees sit leafless and rest from the growing season, and in spring they make use of all that energy they stored up the previous year and explode into new growth. If one or more of these seasons is taken away from the tree, it throws off the whole cycle.
