Acer palmatum 'Oki Kasame'

According to Topiary Garden's site:
"Similar to 'Shindeshojo' but with brighter color. New leaves emerge brilliant crimson-pink before turning a rich emerald green with reddish edges for the summer. Fall color is crimson with yellow tones blended in. Small maple reaching 8-10 ft. creating an upright, vase shaped canopy."

Mine is finally starting to emerge. I'll post photos of it and of Shindeshojo growing in very similar, but not quite identical lighting conditions.

1st two are OK, last three SD

 

I am very happy with this little guy. Bright, bright true red color. It's getting direct morning light. SD gets more total light but it's more filtered. And it is more pink tones of red. Hubby agrees that OK gets the nod as being slightly brighter than SD. Also SD leafed out a week earlier than OK (both budded out at the same time). And while OK's leaves were just unfurling, they had a bit of an orange cast to them.

 

This tree is placed where I can see it from my living room. And when I walk through the room, my eye keeps getting caught by this splash of color from outside.

Edit: Follow up as of May 23rd - the leaves of OK are starting to pick up some pink/fuchsia tones but are still very bright. About ten days ago Shin deshojo started to fade and is now a faded pink. And a few weeks ago I had trimmed around SD to give it more light to see if it would turn a more true red. It did brighten slightly before its eventual fading but not truer red.

Long story short, this year Oki kasame is a stunner for color and I'm thrilled to have it in my garden.

 

Hey Winterhaven,

I just recently noticed this JM on Topiary Garden's website. It is a stunning cv for me and I plan to get it soon enough. Is that where you got yours?

Thanks for posting the pictures!

David

 

Yes! I love it and I'm really happy with Topiary Gardens.

 

I've only ordered one maple (so far) from Topiary Gardens, and that was a 7 year old 'Garyu' (fantastic cultivar!!!) for the awesome price of $45.00. It is a terrific plant and in wonderful condition. I plan to order from Diana again.

I think that OK is sold out right now but when it becomes available again I plan to secure one for myself. ;)

David

 

BTW, mattfowler posted an aside re: OK in this thread http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?p=204081&highlight=oki+kasame#post204081 where he mentioned he has seen OK yellow up. I'm guessing that it might yellow up in portions of the plant in full sun similar to how Shin deshojo can but I'm not sure exactly what he meant. I've only had mine since last fall and so far no yellow.

I've ordered twice from Diana and been very happy both times. All the trees are doing very well so far.

 

Wow! This maple sounds like a load of fun. Must get it!!!!

David

 

Pictures from today...

 

Actually, I have seen it yellow up a bit in the shaded portions. My Oki kasame is new too so it may have shown up because it hasn't stabilized yet.

What I was really trying to say was that the yellow tones show through the red giving it that light orangy color when the sun shines through it. This occurs when the deep red pigments overlay yellow pigments and very little green pigments show through. These spring colored cultivars are slow to develop chlorophyll in the spring, so the dominant colors are the reds and yellows. I don't believe Oki kasame shows this to the extent of the other tree I am speaking of, but I have not had a chance to observe it for very long, nor does mine shade itself as much as the other tree.

For curiosity sake I would look up through your tree when the sun is shining on it to see if that golden color shows through.

 

Right now in almost all the leaves I'm seeing that clear fuschia pink/purple. There are two small leaves at the middle of the trunk that looked washed out and that have green tones in them. I'd agree that the washed out leaves have a bit of orange to them. I'll try and get a picture.

Edit: I just went out and looked at it. I saw no orange or yellow tones. Saw some green. I'll post pics when I can.

Edit2: Hmm. Looking at the photos what I remember looking distinctly green has a definite yellow cast to it. Maybe I'll just call it chartreuse.

 

This is what the tree looks like today. It's been this soft pink color (with a very few green leaves) for awhile now, I don't recall how much past June it kept the bright pink... maybe a month?

At any count, this little tree has been a joy and is definitely one of my very favorites.

 

winterhaven:

Please post a few pictures of the fall foliage of Oki Kasame. I want to see its fall colors. Also it looks like your O.K. never turned green in the summer like Shin Deshojo and Improved Chishio and instead it just turned from deep red to fuschia pink and then to very pale pink? If you also have pictures of the green foliage, please also post them and indicate the season they were taken. Thanks.

I just ordered one from Topiary Gardens.

Steve

 

For whatever reason, I have a devil of a time getting the camera to focus on the leaves of this tree. I've gotten great pictures of the ground or of neighboring plants when I have tried to get shots of these leaves.

But my observation was that toward the very end of summer about 1/4 of the leaves had greened. Sorry, no photos other than what I've already added. It seemed to green up in a similar way to Shindeshojo, but later in the year and not as widespread. It did still have numerous pale pink leaves at that time, but I don't know if that is going to be consistent into the future as this tree matures. I hope so, it was lovely. But my favorite time of year was the spring and early summer when it had fire engine red leaves and then fuchsia pink leaves.

I'll try and get some photos, I think it still has some leaves. But be forewarned, most all of my trees had an underwhelming fall. Trees that looked glorious last year just sputtered this year - they looked washed out. My trees started to turn color and then we got a lot of rain and my yellows turned brown, orange turned yellow, true reds had orange casts, stalled or fell off entirely.

Um. Went out and looked at it, it looks very similar in fall coloring to my Shindeshojo. I see mostly yellow, some orange, and a very few soft red leaves. But again, this tree is very young and my fall colors were not what I had expected to see.

 

Thanks for pictures. I am a new J. maple aficionado, having bought my first J. maple, a 7-ft tall Sherwood Flame, a month ago. It's a beautiful carmine red now. I also bought Improved Chishio(5-gallon), Beni Maiko, Oki Kasame, and Royale (aka Royle) in one-gallon size cans. I was tempted to buy also Shin Deshojo, but did not do so because none of SD specimens at my local nursery are red and I wondered whether they might not turn red in my mild fall climate, zone 9b in central coastal California.

One more question: did your Shin Deshojo turn pale pink in late summer the way Oki Kasame did?

Oki Kasame has a lot of potential and looks like it's my favorite now. I likely will let Improve Chishio, Beni Maiko, Oki Kasame, and Royale grow in their containers for the next year to observe which ones will give good fall color before planting them in the ground in choice locations. There are going to be only two winners and the other two will be planted in large half barrel size containers.

 

You're very welcome, glad to oblige.

Congratulations - and be careful... this addiction is dangerous!

Umm. Hmm. I believe so, but it was much earlier in the year and for a much briefer time before it turned mottled green, yellow, orange shades. It didn't wow me. And I quite enjoyed the bright pink I had for a large part of the year from Oki kasame. I even liked the pale pink once I got some evergreens put in behind it.

I really love my Oki Kasame - it's definitely one of my very favorites but it didn't blaze with fall color. Your project sounds interesting, let us know what you decide.

 

03/23/2010

 

I bought an Oki Kasame in November/09 and planted it in a pot. It came out of dormancy three weeks ago with shoots measuring 1/4" to 3/8" long, but then all the shoots mysteriously dried up before the leaves unfurled. I don't know what caused it. Maybe it was the frequent winter/spring rains we had causing root rot. Anyway, Diana of Topiary Gardens gave me a replacement.

Steve

 

Sad. Sometimes they just do that. Good of Diana to stand behind her plant. Not everyone does.

I had a large Hogyoku do the same thing last Spring. My theory is that the roots died during the winter and the leaves I saw were from the branch's stored energy. I have an Olsen's Frosted Strawberry right now that's making me nervous for the same reason. It started off beautifully, we had a cold snap, it pushed a little further, but now it looks stalled. AND there is one pair of leaves that have fallen off.

I hope your next one does better. My impression of Oki kasame is that it can't be too finicky because my big footed husband stepped on ours not once but twice. Both times the roots came all the way out of the soil, which is what saved the tree from being snapped. I put bamboo stakes around it and good thing, too because he walked right into one and got poked! HAH! But they were ugly, so we put some medium sized rocks around the tree. So the other day, he steps into the bed to look at the Geisha Gone Wild we planted next to Oki kasame. I comment it's a good thing the rocks are there, he laughs, later gets distracted, and then he came about a cm from stepping on it again! I about died. I'm telling you, that tree needs barbed wire around it or a car alarm or something.

But anyway, the point is that mine survived a bare root trip from NY to WA, being planted, being stepped on, being replanted, being replanted again when I fussed with its orientation, being stepped on (good thing the soil was loose from the fussing), and then being replanted again.

 

I, too, have an Olsen's Frosted Strawberry that gets morning sun. The leaves are 2.5" long now, but the reticulation is barely noticeable at this stage.

Steve

 

I have not gotten the fire engine red I saw last year. It's still slightly brighter than Shin deshojo, but the tones are not the same as previously.

 

This latest picture shows the spring color of OK very similar to my Improved Chishio and Beni Maiko. Both of my Improved Chishio and Beni Maiko only stayed red for about a month, then turned a rather unexciting green mixed with burgundy. I'll post some pics of my OK tonight. Its shoots are now emerging.

 

I am having a hard time telling shin deshojo and oki kasame apart at the moment. I would say my shin deshojo is a touch brighter right now, but the oki kasame leafed out a couple of days earlier.

 

Pictures of my replacement Oki Kasame from Diana taken on 4/15. If the tree had been grown in my area all winter, it would have come out of dormancy around late February in my area.

 

Is anyone getting mildew on their Oki Kamame? Mine has it, despite my never wetting the leaves during watering. Of the six Japanese maples I own, Oki is the only one that has caught mildew. I think it is susceptible to it. I also have Improved Chishio, which is very closely related to Oki K., but Improved Chishio is totally healthy. Bummer, I may not plant Oki if it's susceptible.