Re: Acer palmatum Harvest Orange hmmm.. Never heard of this one before! Winter, I may have to have you go on a secret mission and snip me some scion wood! LOL!! Gorgeous tree!
Re: Acer palmatum Harvest Orange LOL. I just checked with the nursery and they don't ship. Their current inventory does not include any small ones, their least expensive is $125 and is about 4' tall. If you become obsessed (just anticipating here) and decide you can't live without it, let me know and I'll help you get it shipped. Of course, it is on my short list, but not the short-short list until I learn more about it. If it makes it to my short-short list AND I buy it, I would probably be able to ship you a snippet as I tend to open up my trees. But you'd have to teach me how to prepare what I cut. I must say, I really like the idea of planting an Osakazuki, an Ichigyoji, and a Harvest orange in a triangular pattern near my ponds where the leaves could eventually intertwine at the edges... Hmmm. Darn it, stop waiving that leaf at me! LOL
I succumbed to temptation last fall and purchased a Harvest Orange and put it in the ground mid/late fall. This spring Harvest Orange has been slowly opening up for me. It's in a sheltered, fairly shady location and a portion of the tree is in leaf. This is what is looks like this spring.
To follow up, this tree has been nice but (IMHO) not extraordinary. First it's green, then it's green, and then it's green. During fall it's orange, which is nice, but it wasn't a clear orange. Further there are a number of nice orange fall cultivars out there.
Winterhaven, Thanks for the update. I don't know this cultivar, but I am always appreciative when someone gives an honest opinion when a plant doesn't meet their expectations. With now thousands of cultivars, and many more being introduced every year, I feel that we as maple enthusiasts should be honest in our assessments of newly appearing cultivars. Years ago I received scions from a good friend of a cultivar called Acer palmatum 'Oranges and Lemons' (not my friends plant, but in their collection). I grafted a couple, observed and let the resulting grafts grow for a number of years. They had the leaf shape and growth habit of Acer palmatum, during the summer the leaves darkened a bit, and in the fall they had some subdued yellowish orange color, typical of the species. I never grafted another one and I no longer have that plant. Maybe I'm just jaded at this point, but I think more time/observation/comparison of new seedlings needs to be done before any consideration is made to introduce a plant as a cultivar. I know many growers that share this feeling. Anyway, I will still likely try and acquire a 'Harvest Orange' for evaluation at some point. But I will be watching with a critical eye. Brian
Brian, I SECOND with enthusiasm your remark that "...more time/observation/comparison of new seedlings needs to be done before any consideration is made to introduce a plant as a cultivar." RIGHT ON! Mike
Re: O.T. seedlings Several of the Heptalobums will do this same kind of year round greening and diminished lobe count when grafted onto prevalent five lobed green palmatum seedlings. Some people in the past felt that the orange cast Spring colored plants were better suited being grafted onto red, predominately seven lobed, rootstocks instead. In today's diluted array of cultivars and their modified forms, it is quite refreshing to read that others are starting to learn why the purists waited so long in time before they ever considered a seedling as a "Maple to be named later". A few requirements were needed to sustain the plant over time in order for most any of the olden day purists to feel that their proposed new Maple was indeed different enough to warrant being named. From a nurseryman's standpoint several promising seedlings never did pass the proverbial litmus test of being perpetuated with the intent to introduce into the nursery trade as a viable nursery standard plant. Which at one time was the ultimate goal of the nurseryman/collector and that was to introduce a new plant that was capable of being grown in a wide array of locations, much more so than those which were kept and perpetuated solely as a collection plant due to suspected and known growing limitations in other Maple growing areas. Jim
