I live in Pennsylvania, US. I have been using a Nursery in Ny. (Topiary gardens) for the last three years and have had great success. I was wondering if there are any other Maple nurseries on the east coast US that people have been using that they would recommend. Mike
Great question. I am on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and usually have to risk shipment of my trees all the way from Oregon/Washington, so I'm very interested to hear responses too. I'd love to buy more locally - for a myriad of reasons.
I've bought a few plants from Henry at Eastwoods Nursery in Virginia (they are listed in this forum's web resources). Good quality plants. Henry's wife did their 1400 image/450 cultivar palmatum CD as well which is very good.
http://daylily.net/dunelanenursery/japenesemaples.htm As you may know I live in Virginia, and I strongly believe the trees that come north are much healthier then the ones that come south. I know the last sentence has to make you pause and think for a second.( For Alex the sentence is made easy: Ho notato che gli alberi che vengono a me dal sud possono allora essere alberi più sani.) I see higher failures from trees that have been grown in cooler climates. I think acclimating to the Dixie heat is very tough on these tress. Albeit the selection can be lacking at times. The ideal is to buy locally and that means within your heat zone, buying a tree in Washington county Va may not be much of a benefit if you live in Norfolk, Colesville Nursery may be a better bet.
Shouldn't matter where they come from if they are the same clone. Of course, Japanese maples brought north too early in the season will be in a more advanced stage of spring growth and could get frosted. Another factor that may be involved is possibly production practices in a particular region with a softer climate are a little more lax, with the result that some stock from there is coming with a pseudomonas infection that causes the tree to fail later, in the final planting site.
Could it be possible that certain phytopathogenic species be more active in a southern climate then in a more northernly climate? Could the periods of activity be longer in a warmer climate then in a cooler climate, also allowing for a longer period of threat? As to clones, some would argue the point that there are no pure clones and adaptations are only natural. Have the TC labs not shown us a degree of variances in ever single cultivar that they have successfully propagated? When I hear a grower say, I add some some good rich farm dirt in my potting mix, I have to wonder what books she or he is reading, or not. ( Pro equal rights to be at fault)