About this time of year I start looking at all the maple vendors to see if I might find something new to satisfy my obsession. One thing that caught my eye this time through was A. p. 'Yellow Bird'. I currently have this cultivar, bought from Topiary Gardens, and I love it. However, other vendors seem to be offering a completely different plant and calling it "Yellow Bird'. Whitman Farms has it listed as: They also have a picture with a lacy green-leaved tree. Greer Gardens has it similarly described as: Neither of these descriptions or photos match the plant I have. First of all, there is nothing lacy about the leaves. Second, they don't turn yellow in the fall - they turn an amazing orange-red. Here's how Topiary Gardens describes it: World Plants also offers this tree, and they display picutres consistant with my plant and describe it thus: So which one is it folks??? Very different trees being shown here...
OK, I decided to order a 'Yellowbird' from the West Coast and see how it compared with my 2 year old 'Yellowbird' from Topiary Gardens. As you can see from the pictures, we clearly have two different trees with this name being sold right now. The one on the left is the East Coast variant, with leaves simlar to 'Hogyoku'. The one on the right is the West Coast variant, and is decidedly NOT like 'Hoguoku'. Which is the true 'Yellowbird'?? Does anyone know where this tree originated? It is not listed in Vertrees.
Topiary Gardens and World Plants seem to have the correct description--Here is a mid-spring photo of the plant I have had for a number of years from World Plants. I like this maple. I would say that neither of the leaves you show match this one so I guess that makes more than 2 plants being sold by this name and it is not a Matsumare by any stretch. The leaves are larger for a plamatum and rounded. The yellowish leaf with the "brownish" or rust edges in the spring is what I have seen consistently.
