I was rather sceptical about my ability to keep this one alive, but here is one of the two I have today :
Looks great! Give it some sun, to help with hardening off. Both of ours died to the ground last year in the spring freezes. Both put out a little growth last year but then one died completely, the other (var. salweenense) still has a shoot, though I don't know if it will survive, really. I think these are probably hardier seed, as both of ours came from N. Vietnam. I tried to get some from Florama but they had sold out, sadly. One of my big seedling regrets, I had a tray of laevigatum some years ago, looking great. Then rodents at all of it. Sad...
Hi Emry, the ones you sent me look healthy: Acer granatense (even if you're not sure it is, I think t looks like it), and Acer metcalfii : Acer sikkimense ?
Well, the two I have are thriving. It's getting quite hot here (31°C today) so I give them a quick spray in the evening to refresh them, and water them in the morning. They seem to like it, they're pushing out new leaves. Emery (or others), do you have one in the ground ?...
Barely. Both of mine are (were) from seed collected in N. Vietnam. The elder is dead for sure, in fact I would have dug the corpse today, along with other casualties I had hoped for, but the ground was like cement. The other, var. salweenense, died back to the ground last year but has one shoot. Hopefully this nice hot and sunny weather will help it ripen, so it will have a chance to survive the winter -- and more importantly, the spring.
From the 8th to the 18th December, the temeratures were negative, the worst was -7, but only two or three days below zero in the afternoon, -2 at worst. Exceptionally mild since then (Climatologie mensuelle en décembre 2022 à Sandillon | climatologie depuis 1900 - Infoclimat). My Acer laevigatum has only a few leaves that are showing "signs of winter" today. Since no frost is forecast for the next two weeks, I slip-potted it, without touching the roots : I was surprised to see that they are not like other Acers. The white feeder roots look quite big, very different from A. palmatum...
Being a semi evergreen in our northern hemisphere, I expect it's loving these temperatures ATM Alain.
Black aphids attack! My Acer laevigatum is the only one -so far- to be infested by aphids, battalions of them that sucked the sap of the new leaves. Yesterday, I used the hose and cleaned most of them. Today, I spotted an island of resistance. I'll use the hose again this evening, and tomorrow I'll spryy some pesticide (something I hate to do, but this is serious matter). I'll also slip-pot it in a larger pot and check if there are no ants in the soil: EDIT : there were ants in the pot. Very small ones, the kind I find in my garden. I was surprised to see that there weren't so many roots, about the third of the pot at the bottom had none, so I will use a smaller pot than the one I had first tought of. I have plastic pots with more vertical sides, it's better when there's some wind.
The leaves stayed green until we had some frost : 14 nights, and 5 afternoons below zero. The first photo was taken on Januray 19th, the other ones today :
No aphids this year Alain? Here in the South of England we have millions.... Your laevigatum looks good after your bad attack in 2023.