Hello! I have a Lace leaf Japanese maple that is growing a new section of broad leaf. Anyone have this happen before? Is it normal?
+1. if all that green stuff is growing from the base of your red dissected maple, it needs to come off. Otherwise it will eventually take over, and the dissected part will die.
Sprouts growing from below the graft (or suckers) are often more vigorous with a different leaf color and shape. I remove them as soon as I notice them, because they will often take over the tree. You often see this on red-leafed varieties, probably because it is more noticeable. However, I recently found a vigorous small branch growing on one of my dwarf green varieties, but the sucker leaves were much larger. I’ve even found suckers on new trees that I just bought. I have noticed some nurseries selling trees with two different varieties grafted to the rootstock — intentionally. Personally, I don’t like the effect because it looks to me like a tree in which a sucker took over.
