Hello, My wife and I just bought a new home late last summer. We are finally getting around to the outside aspects just in time for spring. Can you help identify these plants, I need to learn more about them so I can provide proper care, and know how to transplant etc. I'll start with the small tree's - as I'm not sure if I can just upload a bunch of images in one post....can someone chime in on this? Might be better to take it a couple at a time anyways. The first tree has a stump nearby. We are having it ground out, so we are looking to transplant the tree to a new location. Any advice on that would be great also. I can create another thread just for that if need be. Thanks! Chris
The green one needs to have the plastic label removed. It is also badly rootbound, future decline due to this is possible. Since it is forking near the base and has rather unexceptional foliage it is possible it was an unnamed seedling used as a rootstock for a named cultivar that failed, to be replaced by the rootstock's own shoots.
Thank you Michael and Ron. Ron, I understand the part about removing the label. The other stuff, kinda goes way over my head. It sounds like that tree is in trouble. Is there anything I can do about it? Can anyone point me in the right direction for information about how to transplant this type of tree properly. Thanks, Chris.
Transplant when leafless. However, may be too far along in development to be able to correct all root deformities.
I think Ron is suggesting you dig up and toss the green leaved maple because it clearly has root deformities, it has problems with the nursery tag embedded in the bark, it has split into multiple trunks where there should only be one, and it was probably the original hardy rootstock for a more ornamental maple grafted onto that trunk. That graft has since been killed off and the green multiple trunks sprouted from below that graft. So what you have is likely an unremarkable maple tree in poor condition and with a rather bleak outlook for becoming a lovely mature tree. Given that you have the two other lovely red and burgundy colored maples, you might want to scrap this green one, and either get another fancy maple or plant something else in its place. If you were to try and save this one, you would start by cutting off all the thinner branches/trunks that are right at the orange nursery tag. It will leave a nasty scar on the trunk there, but could eventually have bark overgrowing it. Still will look odd, though. That does not address the root problems. See that gnarly blobbish area below the orange tag? That's part of the root deformity that we expect below. The very young grafted maple was in a pot at the nursery for a long while, then transplanted to this site, but probably without consideration for the roots so tightly wound into the shape of the nursery pot. That means they have not grown as they should, and the tree will never stabilize with a normal sized root system, and the tree will probably outgrow the roots' capacity in a few years. If you were to lift and root prune, you could as easily kill the tree as enable the roots to grow more normally. In any case, it's already past that time this year. Hence, euthanize this tree, eulogize it, and adopt another.
In the third picture are the green and dark red branches growing from the same tree? (Is that the same one in picture 6?) If so you will need to prune off the green branches as close to the main trunk as possible, as they are growing from the rootstock which the red Japanese maple was grafted on to. As Ron says the best time to transplant would be when leafless, but May or September would also be possible, I would avoid trying during the hottest months of summer. Dig around the plant in a sort of dish shape getting as much soil and roots as possible. The "dish" wants to be at least 12 inches deep under the centre of the maple, and as wide as you can manage, preferably at least as wide as the branches. Have a hole ready to plant it into, not deeper than the rootball, and backfill with the native soil. Mulch the area well leaving a few inches gap around the trunk. Water in well and, if transplanting now, deep watering once a week over summer will be needed for the first year, except for during periods of heavy rain. Root deformities caused by container growing are apparent in the last one, but in a low growing and slow growing plant like this it might not turn out to be a problem. It's not like you are expecting it to have a root system capable of supporting a 50 foot tree in the future. Hope that helps.
Thank you all for the thoughtful replies. There are actually only two trees. The first two pictures are of one the last four of of the other one. So yes the green leave branches are growing off the red leaf tree. The photo of the trunk where the before mentioned forking is happening; the newer looking branches are the ones with the green leaves. I should remove those? I assume I will wait until winter to do so however? The tree we have to transplant is the one in the first two photos. The reason we have to now is we are having a stump removed right next too it, and want to eliminate the chance of the tree guys damaging the maple. Thanks again! I have a bunch more plants to identify - should I start a new thread, or can I do it here?
A new thread usually works best. Sorry I can't find the thread that explains it, but 3-5 plants at a time was the suggestion.
