I am pretty much up to maximum Acer content here but I keep finding the odd (and hopefully small) plant I can't resist. Created by Piet Vergeldt in the Netherlands This one is a dwarf that looks like a starfish - the leaf curves down (web pic as mine has yet to leaf out)..
Hi again Bill, looks like a wonderful Peve Starfish, I have that one and each year it does not disappoint. Mine does get very dark red mid Summer.
I have one as well and mine get very dark red (maroonish). Very neat little maple I most say. Waiting patiently for mine to leaf out.
I have a question about Peve Starfish. I ordered it from Buchholz as new grafts and was delighted as it leafed out. Beautiful foliage. But the next year, the leaves were not curled, just your average palmatum shape. The next year I asked Buchholz about it and they sent me replacement Peve S's. Same thing, great foliage coming from the supplier, and fizzling out for me. I also asked Mrmaple, and they said it would often take a year off, but would return to the curled foliage the following year. I grew this to a 3' specimen in a 3 gallon pot over 4 years, but it never regained the curled folliage. I live in southern Louisiana where we get a LOT of rain, this year more than ever, and coupled with high heat and humidity, there is constant pressure to grow, grow, grow. (Other maples perform differently here as well, primarily with degrees of variegation.) Has anyone else experienced this with Peve Starfish?
Good morning @campbtl, I am very surprised to hear this story about your Starfish. It is something I have never come across in all my years of growing maples. The rainfall and humidity should not affect your trees, but the soil acidity can and will. Have you done a soil PH test ? As you know being a MS member that maples prefer a slightly acidic or neutral soil. Around 6 to 7 is perfect IMO. I am also sure that you would have realised if the new growth came from the rootstock, but just checking. Sorry I cannot shed light on this anymore than a possible PH or rootstock problem. D
A mix of peat, horticultural grit, horticultural potting bark and John Innes no3. For pots. Always around 6 -6.5 pH here btw. In the ground it's around 6.5-7 pH. But that has come from a lot of work over a few decades, as I'm in a high clay area that is usually around 7.5 -8 pH. I've spent just as much money on top soil, grit and compost as I have on trees over the years. But it seems to have paid off. Hope thats of help K. D
I am a tiny nursery owner that got into grafting 15 years ago. I order from Buchholz every year to expand my line. I usually buy 6 cultivars, 5 of each. The loss of leaf curl has happened with both the initial five and the replacement 5 plants. I purchase a bark mix made by Eakes (in Seminary, Mississippi, slightly acidic) that is widely used by nurseries in our area. I'm confident this is not a soil ph issue as I've used this soil for many years with no problems. I have had problems with a few other plants that are due to exuberant growth. I have a 4.5' Ikandi out in the can yard that showed patterning, not color, on a few of its leaves for the first time this spring. Abigail Rose is slow (years for color) for me, but Ikandi is much slower. I have to sell it on the promise of future color, which my experience with Abigail Rose tells me will happen. The plant needs to slow down. I've only had problems with that type of variegation in the past. And I don't fertilize in early spring. It 'greens up' everything, which you don't want in a red. I wait until late spring, even early summer, to add a controlled release fertilizer. I was really hoping someone else had seen this with Peve. Will those leaves ever curl again?
It does make one wonder if the plant needs a little bit of stress to show the curled leaves and the growing conditions are just too favourable in your region? It would be interesting to send one of the reverted plants to a friend in a more Northern zone and see if the desired trait re-appeared next year.
i find this really interesting. i've never had this problem with mine. im from MS and still own property there. i was only introduced to maples after i moved up north. i will be shipping down a few trees in a few weeks. planting them out on the property to see how they grow in the hot humid conditions.
Just noticed this follow-up. My plant could be considered as permanently stressed as it is gown in a tufa pot of maybe 1 gallon size (i.e. chunk of hollowed out lava). It always has shown the curled leaves.
I will add that the Purple Thunder I ordered never exhibited any downward roll to the leaves, in fact they cup a bit. I had the great fortune to have Mike Francis visit many years ago, and I showed him a large tree in my yard that was supposed to be Trompenburg. I had always assumed that it was mislabeled as the leaves never rolled, they cupped. Mike did not rule it out as Trompenburg, and in fact the leaf shape is so very similar, but without the roll. I've had this experience now with 3 cultivars, so I am more inclined to believe that environmental issues mess with this kind of leaf expression in the gulfcoast. But it would sure make me feel better if someone else had seen this.
I've noticed this too in shishigashira and trompenburg over the years. A little stress and the leaves look as they should. Where if given more water and less environmental stress (wet and mild Spring) and the leaves appear more flat and wide.
