Hello, I work at a small nursury. We have a tree that is labeled moonfire and we have grafted a few hundred but it does not look anything like the description of moonfire. The scionwood was taken from the moonfire labeled tree. This is how it looks. I grows very vigorously the first years, faster then the BloodGood. The most distinct characteristic is that the new growth in the spring is a firery orange color. Very beautiful but I do not think Moonfire does this. Also in the field this tree is a lighter red then BloodGood and bronzes out in the late summer. The leaves are similar to BloodGood and Moonfire but is more toothed and comes closer to the center. The leaves are more narrow also. It is the color, especially when the tree is young. The new growth is red-orange and then as it grows and ages becomes darker red (not purple) and is almost multicolored before the tree matures. The viens are lighter yellow and are very visable. It almost looks like the Matsukaze picture in Vertrees 3rd edition but is not as it is described. Plus the foliage is more red/pink and viens not quite as pronounced.
If it's definitely not what it's supposed to be you should certainly not sell it under the wrong name. As for finding out what it is, if you could post a photo of the foliage you might get a good lead on a name to check. Otherwise, there are hundreds of cultivars of Japanese maples, some of them differentiated by rather minor distinctions. The van Gelderen's MAPLES FOR GARDENS has many photos of Japanese maples, but even they do not show all of them, by any means.
Acer palmatum 'Moonfire' Acer palmatum 'Moonfire' See photo gallery for another image. I believe MtnGato has a more mature plant pictured. Where are you located?
To the unregistered people. It seems there are two "unregistered" people that should register for the UBC forums. In regards to the thread starter: your dilemma occurs a lot and is one of the main reasons my hair stands on the back of my neck when I visit various nurseries. I've even seen people ask each other what the Maple is and when they do not know I've seen them make up a name and then label the plant. I've stood and watched such nonsense in complete disbelief and do not say a word until I am asked and then I will tell them what their Maple is and will then promptly leave their nursery in disgust. Not only is the name of the stock plant in question but there are several young grafts already made from a Maple that is obviously misnamed. That is no way to run a railroad but people do it. With the advent of online auction forums any mistake labeling can be sold to those hoping to buy a select Maple at a bargain basement price. To a purist in plants I cannot begin to tell people how I feel about that kind of fraud and yes, fraud is not being too harsh a term, as many times it is done completely by design. Makes me wish there was a Maple Police to put a stop to it. I do not know where you are located but I can tell you that the Maple is not a Moonfire. The Maple sounds more like a Chitoseyamama but we cannot know until we see some pictures of the Maple and at various times of the year such as Spring, Summer and Fall. For the unregistered poster, you need to be in the UBC forums. You have the right idea about Maples and I would look forward to working with you in these forums. We all have varying degrees of knowledge of plants but when we have the basics of plants down we have the toughest part already conquered. We may disagree every now and then in how we go about growing plants and the names of those said plants but we never name something it isn't just to sell it. There are enough people around that do that already. I've been around some plants that are still not even mentioned in any books on plants. Just because those plants were not released to the nursery trade does not mean they do not exist such as 4 of the 6 forms of Satomi Dogwoods that I know of (2 forms are in the nursery trade), the Weeping Kuromatsu Pine I brought in from Japan back in 1990 or even knowing the history of a Maple that no one else may knowing anything about such as Akashima. It is the intellectual discussions on plants that I yearn for even if no one else believes me or likes what I may write. Join in here as you make too much sense in your posts not to be an integral part of these forums. Jim
About registering Hi, I registered UBC yesterday to find an answer for a leaf problem I got with my maples. I am grafting maples now for three years. Not for the comercial side of it, more for the challange of growing and grafting a plant which is not really suited for the area I am living in. I live near Sydney in Australia an the spring tempertures here were over 35°C last week. So the biggest problem I have is leaf scorch. Anyway, the reason I reply to your entry is that I am not sure how to use the forum. My entry went out under "seedlings" and I would like to attach a photo but I do not know how. Can you help me? Webwolf Down Under
