Cheering ourselves up with Maples

Woww..it is thank you.

I’m interested in know why oaks are tricky to work with for bonsai..it doesn’t sound like a great beginners choice if you find them difficult.

 

Growing bonsai from seed is a long process, and if some species like maples can develop quite fast, others like oak take more time.

Very often, bonsai enthusiasts prefer nursery trees or trees of a certain age found in nature - and girth, to work with, or air-layers.

What's more, the native oaks here are prone to catch oidium which is not lethal but weakens the tree. Trees taken from the wild (with the agreement of the owner of the land, of course) usually have a long pivotal root, that makes it less easy to put in a suitable pot.

If you want to work with local, or naturalized species, better use hornbeam, field maple, or others. Dunkeld larch (a hybrid between the European larch and the Japanese larch) is one of my favourite. "Scot" pine is also a good conifer to play with.

In my opinion.

 

Lots of samaras, maybe hundreds, on my "big" Acer palmatum :

 

Provisional placement of circinatum depending on its ability to thrive in daylong full sun...,
though this is the rainy look.

 

Many thanks for the info Alain…I was surprised how long the tap root was on those seedlings collected from my JM containers..it was longer that the seedling itself!!!

 

Yes, that's what I said. On young seedlings, if you cut this tap root and repot (with/out hormones), it's usually OK. It's much more difficult to keep the tree alive on older trees.

 

I'm always admirative when I see the others' gardens : mine is such a mess ! I don't even know where to put all the seedlings I have.

Here's a little 'Orange Dream', still more yellow than in the photo. The "nebari" sucks, I mean, it's not good at all, but an air-layer might correct that - one day... ^_^



The 'Jerre Schwartz' that had lost all its leaves last summer and that I slip-potted/repotted has recovered from the frost, only a few dead twigs to prune :



Back outside now : I must repot several that need larger pots.

 

I like the first photo, with the contrast with the grass (festuca glauca or like ?)

 

@wind-borne, I'm going with Alain on that placement, it looks perfect G.

 

Nassella tenuissima, Mexican feather grass is in the first photos.
Though the last 2 photos have Festuca ‘Siskiyou Blue’.

The defining test is 10 hours of full sun, 7-5 summertime.

 

@wind-borne looks lovely:)
@AlainK I also admire people with neat and planned gardens..mine looks like a nursery that lost all bar one of its staff..and the remaining staff member being rather poor at tidying up lol

 

Universally described in many languages as a sh-tty mess.. what you can’t see is all the trees underneath the top canopy lol

 

Oh! but what a lovely mess R....

 

Hey, if I cleaned the windows on the upper floor, I could have a similar picture ! <LOL>

EDIT : I opened the window of one of my son's room, unoccupied for years. Note the yellow hose, the pots and the bags of soils, etc :

 

So I think I can say I have a bit of a collection now!!! Today is my birthday and I added 5 new maples to my garden. At the recommendation of @Acerholic I got a Hana Matoi which I’m very excited to see grow up. Also included is the Orange Dream that I think my partner is just gonna love along with Moonrise, Omurayama and Red Cloud. Sadly I’m struggling to find peaches and cream which is very much on my list. Now just to find the perfect spot for each, so exciting I love these trees cause they are so low maintenance but such a huge pay off on beauty, they are ever changing. I got them from Pacific Northwest propagators in Rosedale BC, Canada they had an incredible selections at very affordable prices in addition to Jerome being very helpful. Hope you like them

 

The Autum Moon is such a beautiful tree. Is it also one to keep in the shade like Jordan or Aureum?

 

Happy birthday Lisa, what wonderful presents you got!! They look in fantastic condition and they will give you decades of joy. You will always be reminded that they were for your birthday. Can't get much better than that...

 

Haha I had to open the window too
Yours looks rather orderly to me..if I took a photo of the other end of mine you would see the reality of the situation!

 

happy birthday Lisa…great additions..Omurayama is my favourite from those..I’d like that one very much.

 

I definitely enjoy a good dose of chaos, nature's. LOL
The front yard bordering the street here enhanced by lichen.


Behind and beneath the pines, the manzanita trunks seen previously snaking around in 'Beni otake' pictures...
Maybe this is where a vine maple belongs.

 

Some random pics from today
Murakumo

Murasaki kiyohime

Orido nishiki

Hino tori nishiki

 

Thanks @dicky5ash Im very excited to see how it does, where do you find the best sun conditions to get the best colour from it?

 

Thanks @Acerholic it was one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had even during a pandemic! I can’t wait to see how they all look especially after I have some work done in the backyard in the fall. They all do seem really healthy but unfortunately the Hana Matoi had what I believe to be Cottony maple leaf scale on it. I wasn’t able to get to much information but from what I could tell that’s what appeared to be on the underside of a couple of leaves. So I’ve kept it away from my other trees (quarantine) and I decided its a young tree I cut off the leaves that had it. I don’t believe it will kill the tree to remove what I did but I didn’t like the idea of scraping such a young plant. Let me know your thoughts I think I panicked and just tried to rid myself of a possible infestation. Cheers. L.

 

Good morning Lisa, you did exactly what I would have done. A few leaves removed will not harm it at all and especially at this time of the year. But do keep an eye out for anymore.

D

 

Love the colours of your Hino tori nishiki M. How long does it hold that before turning green?

D