I am adding these two tress to my collection. I was wondering if anybody has pictures of these trees. How big do they get, What kind of exposure are they getting. I have read about the tress in several books and articles. But I just wanted other peoples opinions on what they liked or did not like about the trees. Thank you for the help in advance. I will send pictures soon. Mike
I have karasugawa (see pic below, taken in April). My advice would be to place it in a sheltered (from wind) place with dappled shade.
I also purchased a JM titled "Taiyo Nishiki" & in parentheses the woman wrote "Butterfly" Are they one & the same? It is labeled correctly? Seems as though labels are very often wrong. I also bought one labeled "Inabe Shidare" which I presume is Inaba Shidare. This was one of those big fancy color printed labels too. And is it Chishio or Chisio? Vertrees spells it Chishio - but others spell it Chisio. So much confusion over names & spelling! Good luck with your trees in PA! I think we are so lucky to have such wonderful growing conditions here in Oregon. Wanda
When in doubt I refer to Vertrees as he went to great lengths to get the names, spelling, and translations as right as possible. Don't rely on the Japanese maple websites either as they sometimes misspell the English spelling of Japanese named cultivars. For instances, "AP 'Aoba joh'". There is no "h" after the "o" in "jo". This misspelling was taken from the Ganshukutei maple website. FYI, the English spelling of my last name is misspelled. There shouldn't be a "y" after the "u" There is no Japanese word "uye" [ooh yeh], but there is a Japanese word "ue" [ooh weh] which is what the first part of my last name is. As is too often the case translations and transliterations can be a thorny issue. Layne
No, 'Taiyo nishiki' and 'Butterfly' are not the same plant. The old Maple is 'Chishio' but the more recent Maple is 'Shishio improved'. 'Inaba shidare' is the correct spelling for that Maple. Layne: I think I have to qualify that the Vertrees first and second edition Japanese Maples books are more apt to have the correct spellings rather than the third edition. Yes, there was a consortium of people in Japan and elsewhere that worked on the spellings of the Maples before Mr. Vertrees ever ran with and pretty much self published the original manuscript and again before the Timber Press publishing of the second edition. What people do not know is that there were a lot of people allover that wanted Mr. Vertrees to write a book on Japanese Maples when he expressed interest in embarking on such a project. What many others felt was a monumental task, all things considered, since much of the information had to originate from and come in from Japan. To serve as a stormbringer, don't get me started on the ah, eh, ih, oh, uh, and in some cases yh common name spellings used in Europe and to some extent even used in Japan now. It pains me to no end to see that kind of stuff happening. I have not grown 'Taiyo nishiki' per say, not going to get into that here and now. 'Karasugawa' is an unique Maple. Last year I had mine in full sun and had allover variegation on almost every leaf pretty much year round. The leaves were quite small in size and all of the new growth had more pink with a white shading than they had green coloration in the leaves, actually the green was so sparse in the amount of it most of the year that I cannot even call it a green mottling. I moved that same plant in shade with about 3-4 hours of morning sun only this year and the leaves became about 5 times larger in size with the leaves being more green in color but with almost every leaf having white in it. The tale of two Maples as grown in sun it was right for 'Karasugawa', yet grown in high shade the Maple more closely resembles the old 'Versicolor'. This was not due to fertilizer as I have not fertilized this Maple in over two years, nor have I given it any new soil. Amount of light and the intensity of light sure made a big difference in that Maple. Jim
Here are the pictures of my new trees. The first two are Taiyo Nishiki. The second two are Karasugawa.
