Acer palmatum 'Higasa yama'

Here is a young grafted 'Higasa yama'. Grafted in the summer of 2002. Picture made in March 2003. Also a later shot, perhaps a different plant, made April 16, 2003.

 

'Higasa yama' 4-14-04

Here is one of my grafts photographed 4-14-04.

 

Hi Elmore,

That's a beautiful little tree!

You seem to do a lot of grafting - may I ask where you get your scion stock? And how many different varieties have you grafted?

I just recently tried some chip grafting on a half-dozen or so seedlings with some scion wood given to me by a fellow student at the local community college. So now I'm waiting to see if they took or not. I grafted some 'Emporer 1' & some 'Sango Kaku'.

Thanks to all of you for some real interesting reading material on the Acer palmatums!

Wanda4
in Oregon

 

I use this thread to ask a question on Higasa yama.
I daresay that we all probably agree that this cultivar is not trouble-free. A well known problem is for the new summer leaves to be pure green with no variegation in sight. Vertrees, in his book, advises not to prune those branches since they will display the variegation the next year; whereas C.Van Gelderen advises to remove them ASAP to foreclose plant ‘instability’, whatever that means.
I, for one, follow Vertrees recom but I would be interested to learn what others do.

Regards

 

Here are two pictures of my 'Higasayama'. I have found that this tree can be very different from year to year. Last year it held it's varigated color well into the season. This year it has alot of green. For me I don't see that as problematic though. It is the delicate changes Japanese Maples grow through in the season and from year to year that make them so special.

Kent

 

Nice pic.:) surely i have not seen this in Australia...

 

Thank you Kent for spelling the name right!

Gomero, I can either partially explain a few
things or I can add to the confusion. Let me
start by saying that 'Hikasayama' does indeed
exist. There is a difference between 'Higasayama'
and 'Hikasayama' in that the leaves of the latter
are noticeably larger in size than the Japanese
form of 'Higasayama' that came into the US.
I've seen a lot of 'Hikasayama' sold in Oregon
from the later 80's to even the present. Aside
from the leaves being larger compared to the
form that I've seen more of in Japan and in
collections here in the US, 'Higasayama' will
show much more pink in the coloring of the
newest growth than 'Hikasayama' will, as seen
on the outside of the leaf before it opens up.
The old form 'Higasayama' will have a cream
color along with the pink in the variegation
whereas the 'Hikasayama' has more of a white
color as it fades out as the newest growth ages
and the white is also seen much more readily
in the older wood in comparison. I look at the
leaves on the older wood first to tell these Maple
apart from each other. I am not going to nit pick
the difference in the shades of pink of each plant
at this time, nor the subtle difference of the base
color of green in the leaves either other than to
say the base color of one is more of blue green
than the other and one Maple has more of a rose
pink than the other one will have which is a lighter
shade of pink instead. Color wise we see pretty
much the same attributes in these two Maples that
we see in the old 'Roseomarginatum' and 'Kagiri
nishiki' Maples that we can use to separate them
out from each other.

One cultivar will revert to an all green leaf more
readily than the other one will. The consensus
among a few people here before me is that the
form that was in Holland for many years was not
the same form that originally came into the US
from Japan although at one time Sir Harold Hillier
had both forms in England. The 'Shinn's #2' which
was popular with very select bonsai enthusiasts
came about as a seedling from the old Japanese
form of 'Higasayama', whereby the seedling was
more dwarf in size, getting to about only 4' in
many years in grown the ground, even smaller
still when grown in containers. The other noticeable
difference was that 'Shinn's #2' was also much more
compact in its growth than the old form 'Higasayama'
was. For bonsai the leaves of 'Shinns #2' would scale
down to fingernail size and with the coloring, the
compactness and still some twiggy characteristics
of the newest top growth, the seedling became a
must have Maple as soon as the right people saw
this one.

With one Maple we leave the all green colored
newest growth alone as shown, I am assuming
this though, in Kent's Maple that the all green
leaves will show variegation next year and in
most successive years afterwards. 'Hikasayama'
when it reverts and especially with some new
growth, the leaves will stay all green and show
no variegation most of the time afterwards (not
unlike how 'Roseomarginatum' and 'Kagiri nishiki'
differ from each other in that regard whereby if
we let it the reversion will take over an entire
'Roseomarginatum' and in a few years time we
will see no variegation from that plant) but not
all as I've seen with some older plants that would
go 3-4 years before they would show a hint of
variegation again in the oldest leaves depending
on how much stress the plant came under. More
stress for 'Hikasayama', the more color we will
see. The more stress for 'Higasayama', the more
die back we will see after the new growth show
their best color and the leaves soon shrivel up on
us and fall off the tree, which is a natural occurring
condition I might add, not due to or attributed to
Verticillium as many people might think. Once
we've been around this Maple for a long period
of time we will see how it reacts to stress and how
it behaves to normal growing conditions. For us
here it was not unusual to see the new growth
burn off, the new highly colored growth appear
and on and on pretty much until the Fall when
grown in full sun. We saw variegation almost
year round is what I am saying but we kept losing
a good part of the plant also in doing so. A 7' tall
plant could be 4' tall by the end of Summer is what
we could end up with. We had some fun with that.

If we were to look around in the Esveld web site
and also in the Ganshukutei web site we will see
Maples that are very similar to both 'Higasayama'
and 'Hikasayama' in their coloring. The newer
Maples from Japan appear to be selected seedlings
off the old 'Higasayama' whereas the forms in Holland
may be and they may not be forms of 'Hikasayama'. I
have not seen those in person to get a better read on
them. I am not sure that any of the seedlings other
than 'Shinn's #2' should have been named and I am not
the only person to have felt that way. I will say this
much that the form that Mr. Vertrees had was not the
same Maple that Don Kleim and Toichi Domoto had
or even the same form that Monrovia once sold. Nor
was it the same form that Jiro Kobayashi had in Japan
or the same old, original form that Harold Hillier had
in England. There is about a 20 year gap in time now
from the Maples I knew well to the selected forms I've
seen from photos rather recently named so I cannot say
with certainty that the newer forms are seedlings or not
and how their behavior will be different than 'Higasayama'
and 'Hikasayama' are but there is little doubt, at least to
me, that the newer Maples are derivatives in some way
of the old Maples I once knew and still know as there
are two private gardens near me that have both old forms
in them. One of the gardens also has the one of old
'Shinn's #2' plants in it, not the original plant though but
a first propagated (grafted) offspring instead.

Jim

 

Higasayama was a plant I held off getting for some time, but over the winter I invested in a two year plant. Besides being a bit suseptible to mildew, I feel somewhat relieved in reading the account of the defoliation in hot climates. Right now I have the plant in partial shade but with the days over 100 the leaves are taking a beating. I have also seen a little minor dieback, but no recovery stage yet. I look forward to seeing what will happen.

I don't think it will be a favorite plant by any stretch, but I do look forward to see how it responds. Having to come to terms with the fact that some plants will just not hold up in my climate is a hard thing to learn. Every spring I feel good with the show and as the heat works its way into the valley I am reminded that certain maples won't handle the abuse. It is a good thing they are willing to push multiple sets of leaves.

MJH

 

Michael, maybe the stress is due more to it not being established yet? Mine gets a couple hours of hot afternoon sun and the leaves stay clean all season. I have not seen any burn. As I mentioned above, this tree for me has been alittle different from year to year and for this year it was less impressive as the summer progressed. But last year the tree was amazing. It is about 5'6" with a good spread and is a tree everyone comments on when going through my garden.

Kent

 

Jim,
Thank you for the interesting discussion. I was nor aware of the Hikasayama. My plant is in dappled shade and is showing strong summer growth with large green leaves. The spring growth, shown below, pics taken in April, was either directly variegated or first green and then variegated. However not much cream, so it must be Hikasayama. I will not prune the summer growth and I will post the outcome next spring.

Gomero

 

Beginning Fall Color.

 

Re: Acer palmatum 'Higasayama'

hello,

i've only had this five gallon "higasayama" since february, so i'm not able to give much history on it, but so far, the distinctive, spring time pink that i see in all the posted photos, was absent in my leaves.

since getting it, i've had it on my south facing balcony where it gets full sun all day long, in the california heat. it seems to be doing well in spite of having had an army of aphids strip it of half it's leaves earlier this year.

the dates i took the photos should be included in the name of the jpegs. i will post another reply concerning what the tree looks like now.

thank you. ^_^

n. musume

 

Re: Acer palmatum 'Higasayama'

and here are a few photos of the recent changes of the "higasayama".

we've had a particularly mild summer this year, which must be why it hasn't suffered too badly until now. the unexpectedly high temperatures of last week, upper 90's, caused some colorful and sudden changes, in only a few days.

you can see how, in just a few days, between 09.27 and 10.05, some of the leaves completely shriveled up, how some of them are still smattered with powdery mildew -- which was a problem earlier this year, on the leaves that didn't receive direct sunlight --. and how the rest of them are still a normal green.

the photo of the checkered, burned leaves are the newest growth, which received no direct sun, and they are easily three times the size of the older leaves, on shoots which exceed three feet.

i've also included a photo of the newest growth which sprang out a couple of weeks ago, which had the faintest tracing of rose around it's edges, but has yet to develop any other markings, and from what i've read in the posts, i think i can expect it to remain entirely green.

again, the dates of the photos should be part of the name of the jpegs, and i'm sorry if this is such a confusing post.

thanks for looking, ^_^

sincerely,

n. musume

 

The attached pictures are of an established A.P. ‘Higasayama’ in my front garden. These photos were taken in early spring 1999 and show the abundance of flowers in photo SP1 and the different stages of coloration in the leaves as they unfold in the spring. This tree is now about 18 feet tall and is 1 of 4 of this cultivar planted in my gardens.

 

Here's the higasayama first bud break.. the color of spring.

 

Be glad you are there and not here in the midwest. My Higasayama was opening up also. The temps dipped to 19 degrees last night so I am sure there will be leaf and bud damaged on a few of my maples. I have about 80 in my garage needing to come out also. Hopefully it will be safe enough in the next two weeks or so to bring them out.

 

here is a picture today of those in the garage waiting to come out

Kent

 

Out of 270 different cultivars in my garden, Higasa yama definitely ranks in the top 5. 2007 was a fabulous year for spring color in my garden, and Higasa Yama held its color for more than 8 weeks, a new record. This photo was taken April 13, 2007. As an aside, last year a couple branches went entirely green. I did nothing to them. This year each and every leaf shows the typical Higasa Yama coloring. Go figure.

 

Here are some fall photos of my Higasa yama. The combination of colors on individual leaves is striking and my favorite fall color of about 60 cultivars I maintain.

 

I've just come by a 2 year graft of higasa yama.

I see many shades of green in the various pictures of this cultivar. The leaf that so enthralls me is the deeper green while still showing the variegation. Many photos, and my new tree, show instead a lighter lime green.

Is the darker green a function of season or amount of sun? Just looking for suggestions on the conditions to really make this tree perform.

 

Higasa Yama is unique. Nothing else looks remotely like this plant. I especially like the spring when the tree produces leaf buds that resemble popcorn about to pop. And then these fat buds finally take on characteristics of a leaf about to open. That's what is happening in this photo taken April 19, 2008.

 

Spectacular specimen at Ed's Maple Viewing

 

These were taken on the same day of the same tree. One was looking up through the leaves, the other down upon them.

 

Spring 2008

 

I have this tree and agree it is quite lovely in the spring. However, within a few weeks it begins to send out shoots with green leaves that are 2-3 times the size of the variegated leaves. Each year I prune them out but this spring they are more abundant than ever.