Cheering ourselves up with Maples

@dangerine49, good morning J, yes it's the time of year when they all start to suffer. This heatwave in England is taking its toll on all my maples now. I have a couple that look really bad. I will post them later. Glad to see some rain on your leaves even though Harry and Boris didn't appreciate it, lol.
Your new camera worked rather well !!! Certanly picked out the lime greens.

 

@LoverOfMaples, new growth in the middle of August on your Oto Hime during all this heat. It's amazing me tbh D. Not complaing about the colour though.

 

Good morning, still no rain here in England and the heat continues. Lots starting to suffer now as J @dangerine49 said last night in Long Island.
But here are some that are just about coping in my garden.
Hoping for the storm that's forecast later dies happen.

 

Thanks @dangerine49. But I do have some that the weather has beat down. I'll try to post a few pics today. I wish it would rain here. It seem to rain everywhere besides Johnston, RI .

@Acerholic I have a few pushing new growth right now. I hope that's a sign the weather is about to cool down.

 

@LoverOfMaples, its pouring down here D, still 27° C but soooooo nice. But looks like the heat has finally broken here, so that's good. Hope our maples will pick up a bit before the Autumn show.
Fingers crossed you will get some soon.

 

'Where's Waldo?' (Wally)

 

@wind-borne, lol. Awfully pretty G. That's got to be your favourite for Sumner 2020.

 

Well the north of England is still normal as ever, thankfully we didn't have the heat that's being hammering the south of the country , a very cool 18 degrees to day plus we have also had good rain periods during the nights which helps. Seeing some very weird second flush growths at present on numerous cultivars which are just going crackers at present re new growth , never seen such strange things happening on the trees as this years. Trees colouring up nicely then some trees completely dropping leaf and now back budding ever so quickly ???

Any ways here are some pictures of one of the container Amber ghost's which started off nicely during the spring , then was caught by the late frosts in May then had to contend with the all the strong gales which then followed and to put it mildly hammered the poor thing , it then went down hill after this thought i was going to lose this one the leaves just started to change colour as though it was going straight into fall mode, small dark red leaf then quite a few dropping. Thought i would just try and defoliate some branches and see if it would pick up slightly, seems to have done the trick with some very large and well defined and shaped new leaf starting to re cover on the branches plus new buds as well to come through.

The first picture is in spring just how it should look, didn't take any during the past few months thought it was a gonner, the rest are from today with it's recovery , a new spot for next year i think and hopefully we won't have the ridiculous winds again??

 

@ROEBUK, good evening M and so glad to hear you have had reasonable weather in West Yorkshire, you deserved it after the battering you took in the Spring.
What a story of your Amber ghost and now looks wonderful. Success comes from perseverance.
I agree, some very strange happenings on second flush this year, is it the lockdown creating cleaner air in the growing season??????
In agreement M, no more winds this year please. Though poor @Nik has Hurricanes to deal with now, so we mustn't complain.
Autumn is nearly upon us, hope to see some lovely colours from you this year!!?
Have seen the news about Covid in your neck of the woods, so do keep safe M.

 

Yes it's that time of year for us. Im definitely not excited. But maybe Ill get some rain, lol.

 

New growth on the 'Summer Gold'


New growth on the 'Orangela'


Young 'Ruslyn In Pink' new growth


'Kurui jishi'

 

@LoverOfMaples, your Ruslyn in the pink is extremely vivid D. Love it. A teaser for October me thinks. Summer gold has definatly got to be a winner the world over this year.

 

Good morning, some sleep at last as the cooler weather with lots of rain made everything bearable again.
My maples seemed to pick up after just one night of this. My favourite whilst walking around taking photos this morning was 'Red Sentinal', so added this one first.
I hope the rain arrives wherever you are.

 

Some more pictures of cultivars which are just going a bit into overdrive with new growth at present. First two pics of emerald lace which i only dug up and re planted in it's new spot ten months back , then my large seiryu which again was cut back hard last year and had quite a few of it's lower limbs removed some of those new leaders are well over 18" in length. All the other pics are named, the wabito is just growing in any direction it likes with a vast array of different shaped leaves which it's noted for, a very unusual cultivar this one. And the amagi shigure's in the ground are still holding their colours well at this stage of the year.

 

@ROEBUK, good afternoon M, now you can appreciate the weather up north, your maples are looking so good for middle of August. We have a lot of fried leaves down South. It is lovely to see a Jordan without yellow and brown leaves, lol.
Amazing amount of new growth on your Emerald Lace, almost a two tone coloured tree.
Looks like your Purple ghost is going to out grow that position very soon M.
Your Shigure batu looks almost alien with that new growth.
Great selection M, I enjoyed all of them as usual.

 

Just added a few to the list. 'Shigure batu' is one for sure!

 

@LoverOfMaples, that list is getting bigger and bigger D, lol.
Looking forward to seeing your Phantom flame btw.

 

At one point i thought i put a nice dent in it but these trees keep popping up, lol.

I'll be sure to post it if I get home in time my friend.

 

Little Shop of Horrors...

Some might think that all my "potted" maples are healthy and don't suffer either from the heat and drought, or from pests and diseases. It's just that I only show the brighter side of... No, I won't post a video again ^_^ Though all the fans of Monty Python know what I mean.

Here we have :
- Acer palmatum 'Atropurpureum' : needs repoptting, weeds have invaded the pot, the roots must be choking ;
- Acer "unknown" (from seed). Kept too long in the sun. I put it in semi-shade with hemp straw on the soil to keep some moisute. In the bottom right-hand corner, a "Mame" (small-size bonsai, 4/5 inches) that is not putting new leaves on so far, I'm afraid this one is a goner.
- A. palmatum 'Beni Komachi'. Too much sun in the heat wave. I left the leaves reverting to green 5/7 lobes to help it with "photosynthesis". A bonsai I must keep alive, a legacy from a friend.
- Acer p. 'Momoiro Koya-san' : probably a combination of too much heat and sun, and fungal disease:
- Acer shirasawanum from seed : it was pergfectly healthy until I just moved it a bit, and the branch that now gets the more sun shows some stress;
- Acer truncatum : trained as an "exposed roots" bonsai ("Neagari"). Probably too much sun when it was hot;
- Acer cappadocicum. I have two, one from Emery, and an "Acer cappadocicum 'Rubrum'" I bought last year. The second one is nothing spectacular, the young twigs are burgundy, but it's very similar to the plain species. What's surprising is that the leaf cutters seem to prefer the plain species, but once again :

...The weaker the roots of a tree, the more problems you get : bad weather, either to hot, too dry, too sunny, too cold, etc., "bad" soil -too compact, too alcaline, etc. will make it weaker. The weaker a tree is, the more it is prone to be attacked by predators or diseases. It is obvious, especially when 99.9% of your trees are potted.

They will all survive. Like every living entities, they can go through hard times, and recover. And anyway, it was largely my fault, but they will survive! ;0)

 

@AlainK, absolutely brilliant Alain. Love the title. As we chatted about earlier this evening, we all do hide our our less pretty trees.
Perhaps you have now set a trend on this thread !!!?

 

Er... this is not axactly the term I would use, but thanks.

Many people watch this thread, a lot dare not post their own pictures because they think their trees are not worth it, or because those posted by others are so "magnificent". I just wanted to show the ugly ducklings that next year can turn into beautiful swans, with a little care ;0)

I tried to understand, tried to explain why those are not so good, and what could be done to make them... great again ^^

 

As Alain say's we all have mishaps and trees which we class as 'works in progress' and they WILL LOOK better next year !! (promise) if we all had trees which were perfect every year and nothing bad happened to them would this then become a bit boring and less challenging ?? i have a list of trees for next year to be moved either into pots or the ground different growing mediums, to try shadier/brighter spots etc etc the list is endless we are learning all the time, also taking into account now the ever growing weather and climatic changes which seem to be getting worse now every year and causing various growing problems for us to contend with ? So if people see these pictures from the guys who regularly post pictures of nicely grown manicured specimen cultivars if others (beginners) can see that even these/we guys don't always get it right and are also not immune to growing the proverbial 'Lemon' every year which we all do but we just don't advertise the fact !! Maybe this then lets other enthusiasts know that we are not perfect and also have our fair share of 'Mishaps' along the many years of growing and tending of maples. Perfection i think is an unachievable utopia we need disasters/mishaps to bring us back on a level grounding.

 

Well D, here it is. I didn't know it was in this shape. Sorry I couldn't provide a better pic.

It got a little banged up doing shipping back in May. The roots somehow got expose and started to dry out. I repotted it and placed it in the garden that gets a fair amount of water (wrong thing to do). I'm guessing it didn't get enough or got too much water. Possibly the stress from shipping. I will get another one and keep an closer eye on it.

 

@LoverOfMaples, Oh D what a shame, but we all do this don't we. Great pair of shoes again though!!!!!
As we can't get Phantom flame over here, I look forward to seeing the replacement in 2021 perhaps from you.
Have a good weekend D .

 

@ROEBUK good morning M, totally agree with you and Alain, so the thread is now cheering ourselves up with maples and the little shop of horrors!!!! Lol.
The thread is evolving !!!!