I have been reading the blog of Talon Buchholz. He has made several Japanese Maple introductions, including Purple Ghost. In his blog Talon talks about before "Purple Ghost" got officially named. He says his customers would request Kasagi-DG92. The only known parent of Purple Ghost, is 'Kasagi yama'. The 5 year old seedling was planted in 1992 in his display garden, hence the; DG92. Now obviously nobody wants to buy a Japanese maple named DG92. People want to buy the Purple Ghost, or Dr. Seues, or whatever cool names people give these trees. I have been searching the internet and have not been able to find much info.regarding the process of how Japanese Maple's officially become cultivars. I want to discover some cool mutation, grow it out and then get to give the new cultivar a name. Please, someone, anyone... Can anyone help point me in the right direction to learn and understand this whole process and business of maple tree official cultivar naming. thanks..
Basically the breeder or introducer of the cultivar chooses or makes up a name and publishes it, but there are rules on nomenclature and what type of name can be given. Start with the wiki on the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Code_of_Nomenclature_for_Cultivated_Plants Here is PDF of the manual: http://www.actahort.org/chronica/pdf/sh_10.pdf If you just want to name something, that's one thing, but if you actually want to make money on the introduction, you might want to look at Plant Breeders Rights and look into plant patents.
Wow. I have not even read one word on any of the links you posted, and I am already just super excited to click a link and learn. I only had to wait 45 minutes for a terrific answer. Thank you so much Eric. I am very grateful.
I just found this from reading a bit of what you posted. How to name a cultivar. http://www.ishs.org/sci/icraname.htm ---> next to the link on the page it says... essential for growers of new cultivars That link was off of this page. International Society for Horticulture Science. http://www.ishs.org/sci/icra.htm
Somewhat related... Is there a database of JM cultivars telling about their date and country/nursery of origin? I was trying to look up the age of Shindeshojo, or when it was first named, and couldn't find the information anywhere.
There is "The World Checklist of Maple Cultivar Names", by Peter Gregory and Hugh Angus, September 2008. Published by the Forestry Commission. It doesn't give an origin for Shin deshojo beyond "Vertrees" (as the source) with no date. But many/most of the maples do have the origin, e.g. near shin deshojo is shishigashira which gives Yokohama/1882 as the origin. I'm sure someone here knows the anecdote for when and by whom shin deshojo was selected! :) HTH, E
'Deshojo' is described in 'Maples for Gardens' as of Japanese origin prior to 1900 'Shin deshojo' ... new deshojo ... is dated in Book for Maples (Masayoshi Yano) as about 1965 Does this help you? :)
I hadn't thought to look in Masayoshi Yano's beautiful book, since it's a source for the "checklist"; but I don't really understand this entry anyway. Do you read Japanese Sam? The entry is under 'Deshojo' (1965), where 'Shin deshojo' is listed as a synonym. It appears that maybe 'Beni maiko' is also listed as a synonym? Or perhaps the parent? Wish I could read what is written... I will try to see if I can find out more, unless someone can shed some light on the text! By all means his book is worth getting, but unfortunately last time I checked it was out of print and used copies were getting quite expensive! -E
LOL ... my Japanese is fluent Emery ... have you let your's slip??? Knowing that Shin deshojo and Beni Maiko are NOT simply synonyms for Deshojo, I am taking the use of the word to mean what we would more accurately call derivatives. It is, after all, a translation If you compare with other entries you will see the comparisons with dates given for them, and come to your own conclusion as to when these plants first began to be known, particularly to the west. 1965 is given in the text after 'Shin deshojo'
Heh. Not getting enough practice in, clearly! ;) I posted this question to FB and am hoping to hear from Yano to clear it up, if he does respond I'll post it here. Meanwhile another friend from Taiwan has posted some useful translations (with links to the Japanese for you, Sam!). Here is his very useful response in full:
What a crazy new world I have entered into. I had no idea the vast world of Maple, Japan Maple, and Maple lovers. This is all so very exciting to me. My mother has tons of red maple seedlings naturally sprouting up in her back yard. There must have been over 30 of them popping up all over the place. Most of them were no more than a year-old. I tried to pick the best/unique looking ones (leaf color or shape). I also found one tiny baby with laced leaves growing right underneath her 'Red Dragon' in the front yard. This seedling from the 'Red Dragon' has great lacy-leaf structure. It seems that it has retained many of the traits from it's parent cultivar. I just hope it can survive the transition and potting process at such a young tender stage in its life. I now have 10 red Japanese maple seedlings growing in little containers on my patio. Some have nice variegation and others are pure reddish purple. I am so wrapped up in this whole new world I have discovered. I do not know where to go from here. All I do on the internet now is read about trees. -- Great thread by the way. I am just having fun watching "emery" search for his answers and observing how much knowledge that others have. Fascinating...
Emery, I see that your first reference agrees with my own conclusion that Shin deshojo is derived from Deshojo I would also agree with the second reference that Deshojo and Shin deshojo are 'essentially' the same plant ... even the name tells you this ... Shin deshojo is simply a 'new' Deshojo. Yano san believes this happened in 1965. What is 'new' about it and how it came about one can only surmise, so it will be interesting to find out more in due course.
If you look at the 2001 Vertrees book the red spring phase of 'Deshojo' is fleeting whereas the 'Shindeshojo' is in color for weeks - and is among the very brightest.
