The diameter of the ‘Tsuri nishiki’s crown at Westonbirt is more than 7 m according to Google Maps. This would make the tree more likely taller than 10 meters (it is taller than wider). I wonder how accurate this whole exercise is… in other words, I look forward to your description of what you see there.
@maf , I believe this is the tree. The images are from a panorama linked to Google Maps. I don’t know how wide the path is, but judging by the people standing behind the conifer it seems to be about 2 m across. The tree appears to be at least 6 m tall (the images are from 4 years ago). If I am correct, the banches should have grayish-green color.
The japanese maple collection underplants an area dominated by very many, very old, larch trees. You will struggle to pick out the maples in that area on google maps, the larch canopies will shade everything else.
That one could be it for sure, I will find out when I go there. Here is an old panorama of the general area, I can't tell if your tree is in view or not. And just for fun a couple of pics of the older Japanese maples in another part of the arboretum.
I tried to use same approach to look up the 3 trees at the Morris Arboretum, but no luck. Their tree location map gives only general area of where the trees are. Their oldest ‘Tsuri nishiki’ was existing at the Morris estate before it became an Arboretum. It was there in 1932 !!! I wonder how large it is now… I guess I will see when I visit. The other two were planted in 1986 and 2017. They are listed as scions from the original tree. A fourth one is in their greenhouse (also a scion, from 2017). It will be interesting to know where Westonbirt obtained their tree from. Is such information available online? Perhaps it was from the Morris Arboretum…
To illustrate my idea about the origin of ‘Tsuri’ (fishing) in the name of this old cultivar: First picture is the position of the new shoots in spring, they grow more or less horizontally. Second picture is what the shoots’ position is by the end of the growing season and at the beginning of the next one (shown), quite vertical. Looks like casting and reeling in, doesn’t it?
As you can tell, I am a bit obsessed with this tree, and decided to compose a description of the cultivar based on my personal observations and previous descriptions that I can find. I hope it will be useful to anyone interested in this maple variety. ‘Tsuri nishiki’ An old, exquisite Japanese maple cultivar with the vigor of a Norway maple. This Acer amoenum var. matsumurae variety is decidedly a “spring maple”, but has plenty of appeal throughout the rest of the year. On sun exposed branches, leaves appear from bright red bracts as dark yellow-green with dark reddish brown margins and lobe tips. The color of continuously emerging new leaves changes to pale yellow green, light apricot/persimmon, and eventually soft pink, with slightly darker outlines and lobe tips. The colors transition in early summer to bright yellow-green, and then to dark blue-green in late summer and early fall, with a hint of red at the lobe tips. The color of the newly emerging shoot stems is burgundy, which fades later in the growing season. On shaded branches, leaves emerge bright yellow-green with light red margins and lobe tips from vivid red bracts and also turn dark blue-green in late summer, when leaf color is uniform on the entire tree. Late summer new growth is bright red. Leaves are large to medium, mostly 7-lobed, but 5 lobes are not unusual at branch tips. The lobes are divided deeply with wide spacing between them. They are narrow and almost lanceolate with a very long tapering tip, with serrated margins having teeth terminating with hair-like tips. The lobe tips droop early in the season, but later level up with the leaf plane. In summer, the leaves change not only their color, but also their texture. They thicken and stiffen substantially. Occasionally, leaf lobes may be twisted. Flowers are bright red and do not produce seeds. Fall colors can range from yellow to red, but are mostly in the orange shades and can vary. Bark color of mature branches is a pleasant grayish-green that stands out in the winter landscape. Branches are frequently co-dominant, with distinctive “chiseled muscles” appearance of older branches at junction points or removed small limbs. New twigs dramatically thicken later in the growing season (up to quadrupling their diameter) and change their orientation from horizontal to vertical. Vigorous upright growth habit, with a typical growth rate of 12-20 inches per year. Young trees are taller than wide. Expected height in 10 years is more than 10 feet. Very good cold hardiness.
Adding some more pictures to my description. The best of spring colors is yet to come. Usually happens at the end of May.
@maf , I will be heading down to the Morris Arboretum tomorrow. Will take some pictures and let you know how large the three "Tsuri nishiki' specimens are. I'll also focus on their large collection of Acer griseum. If anyone is interested in pictures of other maples (@emery , any species maples I can photograph for you?), let me know. https://www.morrisarboretum.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/PlantCatalogue-21-1.pdf
@Nik , I hope you have an excellent day! I look forward to seeing the Tsuri nishiki pictures. If you have a chance I would be interested in seeing photo's of the 1981 accessions of 'Osakazuki' and the 1986 accessions of 'Ichigyoji', both located in F22 which should be close to where the 1932 'Tsuri nishiki' is planted. Most of the 'Osakazuki' plants sold in my country seem to be a more recent variant with more colourful spring foliage and slightly smaller leaves, it would be interesting to see what was being supplied on the East coast in 1981. Also, if you are near J18 some pics of the 1947 accession of 'Seigai' would be very interesting. There has been much debate from time to time as to whether this was the same plant as Bonfire or Akaji nishiki, and some sources consider them synonyms whereas others claim they were originally different but have been mixed up and/or lumped together in the trade. Weather permitting I am off to Westonbirt on Thursday; it is looking 50/50 at the moment as we will not bother if it is raining. Let me know if there is anything else you want photographing, 'Tsuri nishiki' and 'Elegans' are already on the list. There are also many old (over 100 years) matsumurae group trees in the collection that are not assigned cultivar names, which may either be seed grown plants or cultivars that were known only under illegitimate names and may have lost their true identity over time. If any look similar enough to Tsuri nishiki I will be sure to take notice.
No problem @maf , should be able to take pictures of all 3 cultivars (the specific accessions you listed). If you stumble upon an old griseum at Westonbirt, I would love to see close up pictures of the bark and leaves. Thanks and I hope the weather cooperates!
Sure, they have a few. All the older accessions (pre-2000's) of griseum are undated, I will swing by a few on my circuit and hope to see at least one of the more ancient ones!
I image maples in southern UK are at least a couple of weeks ahead, so you will probably see a lot of leaves (especially ones in the shaded interior) already transitioning from yellow green to blue green (first picture).
Yes, I think we are a little ahead of you this year, judging by the leafout pics you have posted. Are you close enough to Morris Arboretum (both distance and elevation) that their maples are likely to be on the same schedule as your garden? I ask because I see the rocks in your garden and wonder if that indicates you are on a mountainside and thus at a higher elevation? Westonbirt is about 84 miles from me as the crow flies and around 50 miles further to the south. It is also at a 50m higher elevation so likely to even out the latitude difference. When i have visited before in the spring the maples look to be (more or less) at the same stage as my own.
Thanks for posting the catalogue! Just back (and pretty tired, too) after a great WE with TMSBI, we visited Wakehurst Place, the botanical garden of Kew, and the fabulous private garden Borde Hill, where we got to see interesting maples not accessible to the public, including a fascinating Acer amamiense, a nice medium sized specimen with some fading flowers [!] the first time I have seen them. Lovely thing. If I'm not too late, I'd love to see A. yui of course, but also A. pictum ssp mono var. connivens (as I think it should be listed) and A. maximowiczii (listed as pectinatum ssp maximowiczii). As is often the case on these tours, we were asked to confirm or correct various names, and there was some lively discussion about this last one. The weather was actually quite hot, and all the maples were very lush. After being gone from here for 4 days, I think the grass has grown 4 inches... -E
I am in coastal Connecticut, about 1 mile from the water. Morris is about 185 miles to the southwest, but about 40-50 miles from the ocean. Their location is USDA hardiness zone 7b and mine is 7a. I expect the maples there to a little ahead of us. The water proximity slows down the rise of daily high temperatures in spring for us… so everything is a bit slower here. However, in general, I have noticed spring becoming shorter and shorter every year. And winters milder and milder. We barely had any snow the last two winters.
When you go to Westonbirt, @maf , can you take a look and few pictures of ‘Kogane nishiki’? It is just across the cut grass path from ‘Tsuri nishiki’. I already know the answer to my long search for the ID of my maple, but would like a second opinion from someone who can see and compare the two cultivars in person, side by side (literally). I did take a lot of pictures of the 3 ‘Tsuri nishiki’s at Morris, but I will post them after I hear what you think. Hope you don’t mind. And it doesn’t matter when you go there. They should be different enough at any time of year.
Yes, no problem. By the way, I just realised today that the Vertrees book 4th edition does not carry the photograph of 'Tsuri nishiki' foliage that is present in the 2nd edition. I don't know about the 3rd edition as I do not have that one. I can post a pic of the pic if you have not seen it.
Yes please! I have not seen it… I have the 4th edition. I will post the pictures from Morris. I don’t think they will interfere with your comparison of the two cultivars. Thank you!!!
Picture seems to be of mature foliage, not spring foliage. The description is mainly the same with minor tweaking, but includes observed leaf size as "7 to 12 cm long and 6 to 11 cm across, but the lobes are less than 1 cm wide. Petioles are 4 to 6 cm long." and gives a synonym of A. palmatum euseptemlobum laciniatum (Pax).