Pruning acer palmatum "Fujinami nishiki"

Hi,

i bought a "Fujinami nishiki" online and planted it last autumn. After blossoming this year the plant is only showing the color variegation on the lower leaves, as can be seen in pictures 009 and 031. All upper branches and leaves are only in dark red (picture 011). I read in the forum, that branches without the variegation should be pruned or cut completely off.
That would mean i should cut my tree and so reduce his size to half his height?
Or should i wait for variegated leaves on the upper branches to appear and prune to these new leaves?

Thanks for your advice/oppinion.

Greetings Raino

 

Hello, Raino.
I have a large Tequila Sunset doing the same thing where the bottom half is ablaze with variegation
while the top 1/2 is plain red. I am leaving it entirely alone and just observing because this year's
variegation covers much more of the tree than 2010. I do not have experience with this exact situation but variegation
is to say the least "tricky", and the new variegates like your Fujinami nishiki are notorious for dropping
their variegation (at least you have some which is good). If you were to lop off the top 1/2 of the tree hoping to
invigorate new variegation, you might lose 1/2 of the tree and gain nothing. I do not know if the red leaves on
yours and mine will develop the expected variegation but I will let the tree tell me. Fertilizing is notoriously
destructive to variegation so try not to fertilize the Fujanami this year. I am sorry I do not have a definitive
answer (I've not talked to anyone who does on this matter) but I wanted you to get some repply in the forum.
Leave it alone for now and the best of luck.

 

Thanks for your answer, i´ll leave the tree as it is and hope for some variegations to appear.

Greetings Raino

 

Raino,

I can assure you that, with 'Fujinami nishiki' and similar cultivars ('Taimin nishiki'..), once a branch loses its variegation it will never come back in that branch. If you want to have a chance keeping the variegation you should prune off all non-variegated branches (of course you can wait a couple of months if you do not want to disfigure your tree right away, but do it before the end of the season). And even this is no assurance since the probability for the tree to leaf out in the future without any variegation at all is as high as 50%.

Gomero

 

i agree with gomero ,i cut the no variegations branch in spring and for the moment ok for my two taimin nishiki and one fujinami another fujinami is revert

 

Regarding 'Fujinami nishiki', could someone please tell me what mail order sources there are for it?

Thank you.

 

i not know if this cultivar is present in USA nursery,www.esveld.nl delivery in every nations

 

Hi, all!
I haven't got any problem with my Collection Variegated Japanese Maple, i pruned some branches sometimes and they grow well and stay with nice variegation!

I think the source where you purchase the plant is very important and you must buy them when you see the leaves for variegation.

See the pics; 'Taimin Nishiki' / 'Fujinami Nishiki' / 'Maimori' / 'Hinode Nishiki'

 

and where is your source?

 

I have this plants from Guy Maillot, in France; another Collector item:
Acer Crataegifolium 'Itaisan Nishiki'