Acer palmatum 'Red Pygmy'

Here are pics of an Acer palmatum 'Red Pygmy', grafted in about 97'.These pictures were made in March 2003. One picture shows another linearilobum of a lighter color to the right of 'Red Pygmy'. That lighter colored one is unknown but I suspect it to be'Villa Taranto'. I have held these too long in small containers but finally planted the 'Red Pygmy'. 'Red Pygmy' forms a rounded shrub and gets about 6'x6'. I planted mine so that it gets plenty of sun in the morning and into the early afternoon.

 

These pics are from my tree this spring.

 

This was taken last October.

 

Get that Palmatum away from that big ugly Plicata Or what ever conifer it is Segger

 

this tree thinks its a stoplight: red to green to yellow

 

Fall color on Red Pygmy- this plant never gets direct sun, and is one of the last maples to color up in the fall. Late November on left, spring foliage on right

 

The maple I have labelled 'Red Pigmy' is still different from the others shown in this post. The pics were taken mid-November 2005, the plant is in dappled shade, and there is no yellow in sight in the fall coloration. The leaf colour has followed well the description in Vertrees' book and changed from dark red maroon in late summer into a brighter red as shown in the pics.
Maybe someone may try to explain this.

Gomero

 

Could it be 'Enkan'?

 

No, I have Enkan and it is not the same. In fact my 'Red Pygmy' fits well the Vertrees' and Van Gelderen's descriptions. My question was for the other pics in the thread showing yellow fall colors.

 

Close up of new leaves emerging this spring.

 

My tree

 

Having read the post of Mr. Shep in the main forum where he talks of a Red Pygmy being sold in Oregon somewhat different from the original Esveld's, just for people to compare, I'd like to share two pics of mine taken in April. The plant is in dappled shade so it does not get a lot of direct sun. The bright red of Spring turns a dark red in the Summer with some greening. Fall colors are shown above in my previous pic.
My plant comes from Esveld so one could reasonably be confident on its parenthood.

Gomero

 

The truer plants should be coming out of
Esveld and from other, fellow dedicated,
nurseries in Holland.

The descriptions used for this Maple can
be a misnomer as for some to many of us
it will only be a strong red in the Spring
and never is or has been a good maroon
red in a warm and dry climate. I've seen
Mr. J.D. Vertrees' Maple turn the orange
cast golden tone colors in the Fall as
depicted by the photo silver_creek posted
in this thread. That coloring is somewhat
how one of mine looks like as well but
my plant here never is as vibrant as the
silver_creek plant is for Fall color.

I know the Henderson Gardens Maple
came from Holland but Don Kleim never
propagated this Maple for resale, only
was duplicated in case he lost his old
plants and to have some younger plants
on hand to let go to serious collectors.

I have a plant from Don and I have a
plant that was red when I brought it
in from Oregon in 1991 that has not
been a strong red since for me here.
It starts out a rose-red in late March
and turns to a green fast here with
some rose-pink to a bronze-red
overtone near the lobe edges then
goes to an aocha with bronze-red
undertone on me by May. It is the
Spring color that I especially like
from my older in ground plant in
another location. The plant from
Don Kleim was grafted onto a
selected red seedling rootstock
instead of being grafted onto a
green seedling rootstock like my
Oregon plant and so many others
for this Maple are. I do see red
Fall color on this plant.

Esveld's Maple won an Award of Merit
for a reason, it is an exceptional form
of linearilobum with the dainty lobed
leaves that hold their lobe width pretty
well in most of the growing locations
from start to finish in a growing season.
I am not at all convinced there has been
a better overall red linear lobed Maple
come into the nursery trade since its
introduction.

Jim

 

This is the grafted form distributed by Duncan and Davies, and propagated by local growers as far as I know. It gets morning sun till early afternoon, then shaded. Another tree in sun till late afternoon shows a little more yellow now. H 12' x W 12' {H 4m. x W 4m.}, about 17 years old. The top of this tree, exposed to more sun, shows more yellow. Definitely better colour longer with some shade here. Reference books state the original 20 -25 year old tree from Italy was about H 2m. {6'}. Pic 1 taken Oct.24/07, pic 2 - Oct.30/07, pic 3 - Nov.5/07.

 

Chimera ... I am in awe of your superb mature maples
Just how long have you been growing these trees?

 

Around 20 years Sam, so still have much to learn. Trees age from seedlings to 25 years . We're fortunate here to have a number of botanical gardens with knowledgable staff, beautiful Japanese and Chinese gardens, plus some good nurseries and growers. They all help to see, learn, and grow these trees with our climate and conditions, and hopefully minimize mistakes.

 

This is one of my favourites, grown in container since we acquired it 6 or 7 years ago. I pruned it a reasonable amount in the past but plan to keep my hands off this year. My aim is to establish a strong framework but keep it fairly small, say 6'x6'. Any pruning and shaping advice will be appreciated. We live in a river valley on Vancouver's North Shore and the tree gets light morning and early afternoon sun. The tree has maintained red colour well and been a nice but not spectacular fall specimen.

 

This time I uploaded the image.

 

Wow, great plant interact. What is the companion plant and how often do you repot?

Gil

 

Thanks for the comment. The Red Pygmy has been in the present container for 4-5 years and the underplanting is a curly leaf ivy but I'm not sure of exact variety. The tree is in a standard plastic garden pot 16"-18" across. I add a small amount of slow release fertilizer pellets each year to this one. To most of our container grown trees, we top dress with a couple of inches of Sea Soil, a composted, nutrient rich soil amendment. We keep the soil level consistent though.

Here are a few more pictures showing the tree in different seasons.

 

Impressive Interact.

Any root pruning so far?

 

This one has not been root pruned since repotting. When we move a tree to a larger pot we would free the roots with perhaps a little trimming. This pygmy is probably in the largest pot size that I will use so root pruning will become necessary later. It is not root-bound at this point.

 

This was sold to me as "Red Pygmy" but it doesn't look much like the ones that are posted on this thread... I'll be patient and see how the leaves grow next season...

 

JoeMaple85, my container grown Red Pygmy is a slow grower and that becomes particularly apparent when I look at pictures of it from 5 years ago. I provide here a closeup of leaves to which you can compare your tree. I guess my tree is 9-12 years older than yours.

 

Interact, maybe I have mine in too much sun... I think I heard somewhere that it needs plenty of shade to keep its red color. The leaves look pretty similar, but yours are redder.. how much sun does yours usually get? Thanks for the help :)