Here is the new website design for info on my Japanese Maples With your varied suggestions I have added some info on Zones, age of my tree, hints on growing from seed and the possibility of a leafing out or bark pic where these are important to the variety Do you like it? :) Acer Palmatum Atropupureum
Sam, thank-you so much for all of the work that you do for the public to enjoy your beautiful garden. The new features on the website look great. I was working at a plant sale this weekend so didn’t have time to reply to your last post seeking input, so even though this is your “finished†version, I will still add a few cents. The most important point I have is that I believe that the name of the maple should be entered with the genus capitalized, species in lower case, and the form, variety, or cultivar written in the currently accepted form, e.g., Acer palmatum atropurpureum (Vertrees 1987; I don’t have 2001); Acer japonicum ‘Aconitifolium’. I am not an artist, but it seems that a darker green towards black frame for the thumbnails would better show off the maples and contrast nicely with the background. See: http://www.fujiyamagarden.com/Acontifolium.html. I think that the thumbnails speak for themselves so if you delete the line, “These pictures show …,†this would give you more space for the additional thumbnails with less overlap. The pages with Acer groups are particularly lovely. When you have time to revisit those, could you name the maples for each photograph and add some from spring as well? Again, thank-you for sharing.
Thanks for your comments I think I can alter the headings to describe the maples in the 'accepted form' . That is a good idea and one that never occured to me ... I was too deep in thought in other ways :) The green colour is the deepest I have the codes for. Black doesn't look right somehow I might try to add a few hints on planting. I have learned over the years of trying to grow maples in really heavy sticky clay to create a good drainage system. (I now try to get a planting position where I have the facility of adding large gravel to the base of the planting hole (having dug out and disposed of a barrowload of blue clay) and the ability of being able to dig a small trench away from the bottom of that hole to lower ground. I then fill a piece of downspout with stones and feed it away from the base of the stones, and pack around it with more stones before planting and adding garden soil amended with a good leaf mould and a little slow release fertiliser. I also sink another piece of downspout beside the planting hole to enable watering to the base of the roots for at least the first year of growth. I then plant the tree slightly high in the ground and mound up the soil around the base (this helps drainage tremendously and I would recommend it to anybody). I also avoid planting in too deep a shade position. Anybody got anything to add to this?
