Acer palmatum 'Kotohime'

As you can tell we've had this plant for a while. It
is the larger sized Maple in the background with a
Kiyohime in the foreground with a Suminagashi on
the right side of it. I will try to improve the group
shot in time. The pic does show that this Maple
is one of the larger sized Kotohimes around. The
close up shot of the new growth turned out pretty
well, aside from some glare and a little distortion.

 

Here is a plant that I purchased as 'Goshiki kotohime' that has clearly shown itself to be a 'Kotohime'.

The bark of this plant is primarily green on the main trunk and chutes, showing some redish coloration on new chutes and on younger branches. This plant is probably around 5 years old and has been a very durable and beautiful specimen.

Different from Jim's plant above, this plant seems to have larger more plamate leaves and a great deal of reddish-orange color in new growth, but very little if ever any pink. This red color takes on somewhat of a brownish color as the leaf develops. Growth emerging after the intial spring flush is typically smaller than the spring growth, but uniform in size and growth.

 

This plant was one I tracked down in hopes of finding what I could consider a "true" 'Kotohime'. I wasn't sure what that meant, but in my mind, the tree I posted above was not quite the form I was in search of.

This Kotohime was acquired during its dormancy in the spring of 2005 and appears to be 3-4years old, but has little side branching, but a decent trunk calliper. It was bare-rooted and I dug it from a bed of decomposed granite at an Oregon seller. The shipping process destroyed many of it small twigs and many of the buds had been rubbed off, but it did make a fully recovery. To give it the best shot, I potted it until this past fall and then planted it in a friends yard.

It differs from my other plant in that the leaves are not as regular in shape and they are not quite as large. This one does not show the degree of red that the other shows and has more brownish tones in the older leaves. I would also say the emergent color may contain some pink in the more subdued red. Like all maples, Kotohime can show various characteristics depending on culture and age. Both of my plants are still too young to show mature leaf form and color.

This plant also differs in that the bark is reddish to brown and more rough. I do not know what to make of that yet, but it at least give me something to contrast with.

 

Here is a link to another thread in the forum started by Gomero that shows what I feel is a larger specimen of 'Kotohime' that is quite like one of mine. That plant is quite at home here in this thread.

http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=6628&highlight=kotohime

 

In addition to the spring pics shown in the link, I'd like to contribute to this thread with two pics, one in late May and the other one end July. My 'Kotohime' displays extraordinary vigor and is now about 2 m. tall. Fall colors are not outstanding.

Gomero

 

Gomero,

Thanks for contributing the extra photos as I hoped you would. You certainly have a beautiful and extensive garden and beautiful plants.

You have helped show the similarities and likeness between your plant and one of mine. The one I feel most like yours is not represented by a later summer photo, but it is quite like yours.

The display of height and size on yours is also great to see, as it is hard to imagine how what is considered a dwarf will actually get that tall relatively quickly. I will say that in a good year I have seen mine put on some significant growth and the size of your gives the potential impression of more of a semi-dwarf plant when grown in favorable conditions.

I do not get great fall colors either. The past few years have been quite mundane. What I find with the colors on this and similar plants, Hupp's Dwarf comes to mind, is that the fall colors develop very late, sometimes in sections of the tree, and then are quickly dessicated by the first hard frost.

 

I fully agree, this is exactly what happened to mines this year.

Gomero

 

Spring 2008 update on my 'Kotohime', a vigorous 'dwarf' indeed. The tree has been in the ground 12 years so it is about 15 years old and keeps growing...., it will hit 3 m. this year I think.

Gomero

 

I saw these plants marked Kotohime at the nursery. But these trunks are red, not green. Any insights out there?

 

Some of my specimens, (specially those that get full sun), change the color of the bark to reddish/orange during fall season, not only their leaves. It sounds odd, but the side of the trunk more exposed to the light, is more red than the opposite side.

Nelran

 

hi at all,
this is my first post on this great forum.

I'm from Italy and I want to show you my Kotohime pre-bonsai. It's going to open its buds. It's absolutly the first to germinate on March.

Hope you like it.

regars,
Nicolò

 

Nicolò,

Very nice, I love the pre-bonsai look.

xman

 

thanks xman. It's in a very early stage. I need to completely rebuild the branching. Not soon, but I think I can create a nice Hokidachi.

regards,
Nicolò

 

Nicolò,

Do you buy these trees pre-bonsai? or do you buy regular sized trees and then work them down to pre-bonsai? I have a goal of getting most of my maples in containers to look pre-bonsai, but most of my trees are high grafts and I do not have a clue on how to start.

regards,
xman

 

xman,
this plant was bought in a regular nursery, but I've choose it cause it has a lot of potential as future bonsai. In particolar the branches weren't too long and far from the base of the plant. So, with some simple cuts I can create a nice bonsai.

If you have plant with leaves far from the base, you have 2 alternatives:
1)you can make a simple Air-layering. This is a very good method, cause you can have 2 plants from 1 source
2)If the plant has a little branch near the grafting, you can chop the trunk just above the little branch, and then you can completely rebuild the ramification from it.

These are some very basical bonsai technique. If you want I can send you some links.

regars,
Nicolò

PS
sorry for my poor english. I hope you can understand my writing.

 

----

 

hi Nicolo'nice pics! and welcome!
ciao :-))

 

hi alex66,
thanks but it's in a very first stage as a bonsai! :D

you are from Rome too and you've got a passion for maples like me, right?
What cultivar of maple do you have and where did you buy it?
I can send you the list of my maple cultivar, maybe we can exchange some cuttings :D

ciao da Nicolò

 

hi Nicosaturno for sellers in this forum there is a good number of link in top page
however my best source
Italy: Floricoltura Fessia di Fabrizio Fessia not have web site the contact is here www.vispi.info/
France : Guy Maillot erable ;Adeline (now with italian manager)
UK : Mallet Court nursery
Holland :Dick van der Matt japanese nursery,and www.esveld.nl
maple for me is life....
now i have over 270 maples..
send me your list no problem!
ciao

 

I've bought some of my maples from Esveld and Fabrizio Fessia too.
270 maples, great!! :D

I've got only 15 maples and some cutivars. I've got:
*Acer palmatum Deshojo
*Acer palmatum Autumn Fire
*Acer palmatum Kotohime
*Acer palmatum Villa Taranto
*Acer palmatum Summer Gold
*Acer palmatum Sango-kaku
*Acer palmatum Corallinum
*Acer palmatum Trompenburg
*Acer Japonicum

But I think you have got this cultivars yet.

ciao, Nicolò

 

ok !if you click on my nick is possible contact me by private message or e mail.
ciaooo

 

Visited two local garden centres near me today.They're getting more adventurous in their selection.Was surprised to find they both had 'Ryusen' on it's own roots(it's those Son&Koot guys again)Couldn't resist this little guy though,my first hime:)

 

Lovely! I love all my 'himes'

 

I spent a lot of time and exchanged a lot on various forums trying to find the name of this cultivar. I first labelled it 'Shishigashira', then 'Crippsii', but now, I'm almost certain it's 'Koto hime'.

When my sister gave it to me, in April 2007 :



I air-layered it in 2012. Both air-layers took, one of them was lost two years later while I was on holidays, the other one (2015/2017) is still OK :



On October 29th, it was still green. The darker leaves in the top-left are 'Shishigashira' :

 

21st February 2021 and my little Kotohime is just starting. Will be tidied up in the next week ready for all the new growth in the direction I want.