Always great to see. Mine is by a raised terrace right outside the dining room. It really is one of my favorite spring maples, stunning. It give me hope that spring is on the way here as well!
nelran, That sure does look promising. Here too 'Katsura' is coming along. The buds are swelling even as snow tops off its pot. As this long Winter draws to a close it is very reassuring to see 'Katsura' come alive.
Thanks Jacquot and Poetry, looks like here we're starting to return to our average temperatures with good weather, although at nights still drop to 40s. However, this winter took its tool in my garden: not only some of my tender JMs (I lost probably 10 one gallon sizes, and another 10 gal. But my big lost was the tropical section of my garden. Two days with snow (pretty unussual here) following by almost two months with constant frozen winds and temperatures unusually low, resulted in damage of almost 80% of my palm trees, succulents and all my tropical plants, including all my loved Strelitzias; the beautiful “bird of paradise” (S. reginae and S. nicolai); with their flowers still on them. I will wait another month or so to replace them. Sadly this plants take a lot of time to flower after planted, so I don’t think that I’m going to see their wonderful flowers for some years. Nelran
Poetry, Well poetry, from my experience here, grow JMs in Z8 is actually harder than grow them in colder zones. I'm in the most "warmer" extreme of the hardiness zone recommended to grow JMs. The main problem here it's not the cold hardiness as the scale is referred, -quite the opposite- most of the problems I'm dealing here are related with long summer seasons where temperatures reach over 100 degrees almost everyday (last summer was specially very drought with almost no rain and record temperatures), hot winds that burn leaves and bark, high humidity: lot of pests, fungus and other diseases that attacked my most tender and small specimens. It's difficult to say but to be fair, maybe part of the losses was my fault. Last year I was very busy at my job, so the time dedicated to my maples was much less than previous years. Also I learned that some specimens are more "warm resistant" than others and size plays an important rol, too, so probably the damage was done during summer but is now that I realized.
Hi Nelran, Which cultivars are the one you have success with? Am a bit further south than you so I lost quite a few over the summer due to over water. I have to admit my soil mix was very poor. NamNhi
NamNhi, I don't know how to paste a Excel Table here, so I opted to attach a pdf file showing a Summary Table of some -not all- my JMs. At least is a starting guide with my personal experience with some cultivars. In future threads I will continue to add more of growing maples in zone 8a. I hope this be useful for you. Nelran
Is this a 'wakeup call' thread lol I have buds but must still watch out for that final push of jack frost.
Nelran, Thanks for the list of easy/difficult cultivars. I have spent way too much money on this. Am done trying trees that have a hard time in my area. The hot summers along with the deep freeze we had last December/January help me narrow down the list of plants I can help quite a bit. Your Katsura looks really healthy and beautiful. NamNhi
Thanks NamNhi. I don't have too much shade (big trees) to protect my maples from dry winds and too much sun exposure. So what I did is planted them in the north side of my house and during summer I put a provisional shade cloth and moving around my potted JMs. Quite a big task specially for 5, 10 and 15 gal sizes. However now is my favorite time, when they start to leaf out, and I can enjoy their beatiful colors. Nelran
I agree Alex, in my garden 'Nakahara beni' beats all the others. Today it is the only one with very tiny leaves. The last snow melted today and the forecast is for Spring to arrive next week ;o)) Gomero
namnhi2, You should look at Metromaples. They have a list of the cultivars that do well in our area. Here's an excerpt. Most Sun Tolerant - Upright: Acer palmatum, Sango Kaku, Seiryu, Omureyama, Osakasuki Most Sun Tolerant - Dissectums: Tamukeyama Most Sun Tolerant - Dwarfs: Shishigashira, Mikawa yatsubusa, Coonora Pygmy Most Drought Tolerant: Acer palamtum, Sango Kaku
Still waiting here for Katsura's break. I'm seeing some bud swell generally on the earlier Japanese maples, and the Silver maples are starting to flower with Reds not far behind...
I have all these cultivars, (different sizes), and they're are doing very well here. Among the others that I already talked in a previous post, also Seryu, Tamukeyama and Coonora Pygmy are explendid too. I have two Seryu one planted four years ago, other still in a cedar container. Coonara Pygmy has two years with me, excellent grower and very tolerant to hot weather. Shishigashira and Mikawa yatsubusa are my smaller babies (I bought them last year), and until now they're doing nice. I have one Osakasuki that I recently put in ground, and is wonderful too. Here some pics: 1. Seryu (picture taken some days ago) 2. Shishigashira (pic taken last week) 3. Coonora Pygmy (pic from spring 09, stating to sprout now) 4. Mikawa yatsubusa (pic from spring 09, leafing out know, very nice) 5. One of my Sangu Kaku. (pic taken last week) starting to sprout. Nelran
Thank guys, Interestingly enough, I do not have any of those cultivars. I manage to kill one Mikawa yatsubusa last year and quite a few others. I will keep this thread in mind if I decide to give it another try. I still have quite a few Crimson Queen and Orangeola as they seem to be doing ok around here. NamNhi
Nelran, You have some very nice looking JM's. My collection is much more modest at this time. I planted everything on an a raised planter next to an eastern wall. That is with the exception of a Shantung Fire Dragon Maple and a Ginkgo Autumn Gold. The Ginkgo is a new 6 ft plant that I picked up for ~$50 at a Austin Nursery. Great find for me. They usually run $50 for a 4 ft plant. My pics: Mikawa Yatsubusa Tamukeyama Shin Deshojo Seiryu Butterfly Beni Kawa Ginkgo - Jade Butterfly Ginkgo - Chase Manhattan Shantung - Fire Dragon Oddly shaped Root on Shantung - Fire Dragon
Walking around the garden today I noticed Katsura and Komachi Hime are starting to break bud. Hello spring!!
Thanks bkb. You are doing well too!. Planted on a raised bed is a priority here, specially if you have clay or poor drain soils. Also the east side is a good location because usually they get sunlinght in the morning but avoid the hot afternoon sun. It seems to me that you planted them recently, so expect a couple of years to see how they adapt to that area and start to stablish root zone. Keep an eye during this time, to assure a good start. Gomero & Kaitain4: Finally, it looks like "Showtime" for Season 2010 is here for you, too! Congrats! Nelran
I had a similar thing with my FD Shantung, and it was a girdling root. The seedling had been kepth too long in one of those 4"x4" tree tubes. I ended up pruning a number of roots last fall, We'll see how the tree does this year. Arktrees
Another early leafer (second after Nakahara beni) in my garden is A. caudatum ssp. ukurunduense. Gomero
