Pretty funny to pull Rhode Island Red up on google, it comes up with a bread of chicken. It seems to be a medium to small size tree. The one I have is very full. The shape also looks good.
As usual, one of the first to leaf out for me. Always better appreciated when looked at from the opposite side of the sunshine.
Lovely at all times of the year N, I remember the discussions you had with D @LoverOfMaples on this one early last year. I don't tire of seeing it.
Early May color. If anyone needs a dwarf red variety with an incredibly dense branching habit, this is the one. Considering I removed about 75% of the main branches in late winter, it is doing quite well. (My husband asked me “why did you shape it like a lollipop?”, he does not realize that it is a work in progress...)
But even lollipop trees have their place in a garden N. As I said last year, never tird of seeing this one.
I thought I would post a picture of my supposed 'Rhode Island Red'. It seems that it doesn't know it is supposed to be a dwarf anymore and has grown to be really rangy and tall. I took a photo of its leaves in comparison to 2 other leaves of larger red trees I have. I am wondering if dwarfs revert or grow larger sometimes?
This is one of my latest purchases! but what a red color! he is a beautiful dwarf. it lights up the flower bed
This tree has not put on any new growth this year. Probably need to take it out of the pot and freshen up the soil.
View attachment 252751 9 This is my supposed to be Rhode Island Red this year growing up into some American Smoke Trees. It doesn’t behave at all like I’ve read it should but it seems to be okay with that.
‘Rhode Island Red’, which started my fascination with Japanese maples. After an accident few years back and some heavy pruning, this dwarf maple was left with only about 10% of its branches. It has recovered well, and this is how it looks now after some light early summer pruning of some small twigs at the bottom. Second picture is from earlier this spring. It is much redder in person, for whatever reason my phone camera doesn’t capture the true color. My initial design thoughts for this tree were to keep it as a ‘karikomi’-style rounded little shrub in the yard, however, now it appears that I will have to settle for a broom style bonsai look. Speaking of brooms, the growth habit of this dwarf variety appears very similar to witch’s broom cultivars, but it is missing the rounded middle lobe feature of the leaves. Is that a characteristic for all witch’s brooms? I couldn’t find any details about how this cultivar was discovered. Interesting observation about this tree is that I have never seen it backbudding. Even after heavy pruning. All my other Japanese maples do it freely all the time. So if you are hoping for backbudding on your ‘Rhode Island Red’ for changing its shape, don't count on it. Does anyone know if witch’s broom cultivars backbud?
Cjart, even the shape of the leaves on your tree is not consistent with it being ‘Rhode Island Red’. On a typical RIR leaf, the smallest lobes at the base always point towards the petiole, and if the leaves are 7-lobed, then they are almost parallel to the petiole. You have a beautiful tree, even if it’s not a ‘Rhode Island Red’.
Thanks Nik. I have come to that conclusion as well since it just keeps getting taller. I would guess it's some variation of Bloodgood, but I don't have one to compare. I don't think I would have planted it so close to the fence if I hadn't been expecting it to be a lot smaller. It was a pretty small plant when I first planted it. It was in a 4 in pot. Buchholz nursery used to sell these small "cutie" pots of maples and some evergreens quite a few years ago and our local nursery had them for under $10. They were so cute and hard to resist and some of the ones I bought are pretty large now and of course some of them didn't survive. It's always educational! By the way, is there some kind of chart or documentation other than Vertrees' book about how a variety's leaves generally look?
Hi Cjart, I bought mine about 9 years ago and it was approximately 15” tall at the time. It has been growing very well all the time, it had a mishap few years back and some tough love from me immediately after that, and now it’s just about 4 feet tall. It was my first Japanese maple. As for detailed description of cultivars, I am not sure what to tell you… I am a biochemist and used to precision in measurements and descriptions. I have come to realize that no such thing exists for Japanese maples. I recently got the Vertrees book as a birthday gift, and yes, it is very good, but it has so many ambiguous statements… My advice to you is to do your own research, there is so much information online, don’t rely on a single source. The description I gave you about what RIR leaves look like is from my personal observations of the tree and looking at numerous pictures online (the cultivar is not in Vertrees).
Yes, thanks for the observation and your information. I agree that there is so much to discover and of course everyone has limited time. That's why this forum and the maples are forever fascinating. I have made charts of the leaves that I have owned just because they are so interesting in their differences. I also found the Vertrees book ambiguous on a lot of points but what a huge subject to tackle! Getting people to even see and define color in the same way is pretty impossible and there are so many different descriptions of colors let alone shapes. But everyone agrees the trees are beautiful. Thanks for the input.