Hi all, I'm a big fan of this forum! I was wondering if anyone is able to identify which Japanese maple variety this is? It seems to stay a bright red all year round. Thank you in advance!
There are SO MANY possibilities with this one. And ultimately, it is quite likely that you will never know, unless you do it by finding out who planted it, and assuming they have an accurate record of its origin. It is even possible that it doesn't even have a cultivar name, if it is a chance seedling. That's less likely, though, if it truly stays nice and red all year. A closer view of the leaf would help, but based on what I can see in the photo (appears to be fairly typical leaf shape) even that would only narrow this down slightly. You can also investigate the likelihood of it being a cultivar by examining the base of the trunk for evidence of a graft union.
Thanks for your reply! Good idea, I'll take a closer look at the base to see if there is any evidence of a graft. But yeah, I guessed that I would ultimately need to ask the nuns who live there (it's in front of a convent) if they know which cultivar it is. Maybe they have kept a record of its origin.
Look for matching plants in labeled collections and nurseries. Take a sample with you so you can compare details of stem and foliage up close. And if this is a planting belonging to somebody else - who cannot supply you with a useful name when asked - and you want to duplicate it on your property you don't really need to find out the exact name it was purchased under. But simply go shopping for similar plants and purchase one of those, same as if you did not even know about the specimen you are showing.
