Leaves: greenish pinkish yellow in spring, dark green in summer and reddish orange in autumn. Orange-red wood in winter on the branches of the last 2 years and with a faster growth. The cultivar edisburry bears a wood in winter of a brighter shade than Sango kaku.
I find the winter bark colour on the shoots to be more of a deeper red than 'Sango kaku', which tends more to pink-red. I will have to take some pictures and post them. BTW, I believe the accepted cultivar name nowadays is just 'Eddisbury' without the 'Sango kaku' prefix. I have the Spring 2000 catalogue from Mallet Court Nursery and back in those days this nursery listed the two cultivars as 'Sango kaku' (Senkaki) and 'Sango kaku' (Eddisbury). I think that is where my tree came from. Another good English selection of Japanese maple. As per Vertrees/Gregory 4th edition:
I would also take pictures of the wood! but Eddisburry is another different cultivar of sango kaku eddisburry. Eddisburry to a golden yellow color in autumn.
These pictures are not very good but were the only ones I could find, taken November 4th this year, early stage of autumn colour. Has suffered branch die back over the years which coral bark types seem to be more susceptible to, hopefully this has now grown out of it. Will try and get some new pics including close up of the bark in the next few days.
I decided to make a couple of comparison images to show the difference in winter twig colour between the original 'Sango kaku' (often known as 'Senkaki') and 'Eddisbury'. The original idea was to clip a couple of twigs off and display them side by side but I nixed that due to not wanting to create entry points for pseudomonas bacteria at this time of year. To ensure the pictures were taken under the same conditions I manually set the white balance to avoid the possibility of the phone adjusting the colours as per its usual whimsical ideas about what looks good. The two trees are planted in the ground less than fifty metres apart and the photograph of the second tree was taken one minute after the first. The weather was overcast cloudy sky. For all intents and purposes it was a fair comparison. To my way of thinking 'Sango kaku' has more orange to pink tones, like coral, and 'Eddisbury' tends more to true red or "fire engine red".
One other difference between Eddisbury and Sango kaku/Senkaki is that Eddisbury leafs out earlier. Picture from today - the SK in the same garden with similar sun exposure is only just breaking bud.
Are they too close to think about having both in a garden ? I wonder !! There are so many cultivars out there these days and so many that you can't tell the difference unless you have the label to ID it. This is a very interesting thread that highlights how we maple lovers / collectors can get drawn into spending more money, when it is not necessary. Well done @Romain01 and @maf for your insights and photos.
One in the front garden and one in the back garden is how we got round it. They are different enough to tell apart but only if you know what you are looking for - being a JM obsessive helps in this regard! Iirc @emery has also discussed some of the differences in a few threads here and there...
Thanks for the reply M. I do agree that we JM obsessives can tell the difference. My point was raised for the many who view the forum who want to buy a cultivar or two, but are bamboozled by the many Japanese maples that are very similar.
Exactly - I also agree with you! On a related note, for people who want multiple coral barks I think it is better to choose ones that are very different such as 'Sango kaku' and 'Bi hoo' or to have multiple identical clones of the same cultivar, rather than having ones that are nearly the same. For example a row of either SK or 'Eddisbury' would look nice, a mixed row of either combined with 'Bi hoo' would look nice, but a mixed row of 'Sango kaku' and 'Eddisbury' would look a bit off because they are not quite the same and not different enough.
I went down the route of Sango kaku and Bi-hoo next to each other. A lovely contrast during the Winter. I agree, I wouldn't want SK and Eddisbury next to each other or close tbh. But everyone to their own. Really pleased with threads like this. It gives people the heads up on what and what not to buy.
I count myself among the bamboozled! Was just taking some pics of the 3 yatsubusa 'Murasaki kiyohime', 'Little Princess' and 'Komachi hime', which pots happened to be together. I honestly can't tell the difference between them. I know 'Little Princess' is already a synonym for 'Mapi-no-machi hime'. Moderators, can we please change the thread title to 'Eddisbury' (with the correct spelling) as there no maple named 'Sango kaku Eddisburry' (or whatever). This is the cultivar gallery, we're supposed to get it right, not add to the confusion. This maple comes from Maillot (who sold it under the afore mentioned name) and I believe it is a true Eddisbury. If there's already an Eddisbury thread, this should be combined I suppose. TIA.
OK, I have renamed the thread title as requested by @emery. This will save the confusion on the cultivars photo forum. It is now there in it's own right.
Agreed Romain, as long as the next pot is only slightly bigger than the last. I have found many years ago that if the next size pot is too big, they really don't like it. A lovely specimen tree you have there now.
Fully leafed out now and looking pretty good I have been slowly battling die back issues on this tree, not surprising for a coral bark type, and I now seem to be getting the upper hand. An old wound low down on the main trunk is healing nicely and there are still one or two little "issues" which will be pruned out soon
