I live in Nanaimo BC, just purchase a house this fall and have began working in the yard. There are three Japanese maples in our yard as well our streets are lined with some unknown tall trees. I have found hundreds of seeds that I thought were Japanese maple seeds all over the yard, so I decided to plant them. They are now growing but they are not at all what I expected. Here are some photos. Can anyone tell me if these are maples at all? or what they are thanks
They could be maples, but almost certainly not Japanese Maples. But young sycamore, sugar, silver maples may show a first set of leaves like that. Good on you for planting! :) The centre photo looks like it might be a sugar maple of some sort. Post some pics when they get another couple of sets of leaves! -E
Look most like Norway Maples to me. Have you still got the seed cases that the seeds grew from? Or some more seeds in the garden the same shape? Norway Maple has very easily recognised flat disc-shaped seeds, unlike the globose seeds of most other maples (some other close relatives of Norway Maple also have [smaller] flat seeds, but they are also much less common in cultivation).
I don't have the cases where my seedlings came from (I threw them out as they emerged from the cases opps :( ). Now I know to keep them for identification purposes : ) I have a huge bag of what I thought before was Japanese maple seeds from our yard (all different areas) that I'm hoping to grow more actual Japanese maples from. Are there identifying characteristics of the Japanese maple that distinguish it from other maples? (p.s. I have no gardening education, just experience). the seed cases I mean.
Also at what stage should tree seedlings (maples or others) be transplanted into bigger pots? I want to give them the best chance of survival. Thanks
Norway Maple (left; public domain pic from USDA) and Japanese Maple (right; pic by Tomomarusan, creative commons cc-by-sa license) seeds. If yours are Norway Maples, then best not to grow them on, as it is an invasive weed species in your area (and will grow to 20-30 metres tall, too big for most gardens).
A good distinguishing feature is the size of the wings on the seeds. On Japanese maples the wing is usually 25mm (one inch) or less in length. Most of the other common maple species you are likely to encounter have seeds with wings that are normally longer than 25mm. The best way to be sure where the seeds come from is to pick them from the trees in the fall before they drop. Late September and October is a good time, you can tell when they are ready because the wings start to dry up and turn brown at the edges. More information about growing Japanese maples from seed can be found in this thread: Maple seeds wont sprout
