I have to remove two conifers on either side of my chimney this fall and would like to replace them with a pair of Japanese Maples. I am located in the foothills of the Cascade mountains northeast of Seattle. The chimney is on a south facing wall and gets full sun for about 12 hours in summer. Winters are relatively mild with rare occasions when temperatures will drop below 20 F. The proper tree should be narrow, maximum width of about 4' and height up to 12-18'. I am quite capable of pruning to maintain shape but don't want to have to do that at height over about 9'. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Tsukasa Silhouette and Koyasan. Koyasan will have an overall shorter height of the two but both are very narrow growers.
Had exactly the same dilema myself last year, have two large trees with a space in between them at just over 48 inches wide and i wanted something to go there to fill the gap but knowing it couldn't be anything bushy because it would then just grow outwards and impeed itself into the trees either side over the years. Having had a Wilsons pink dwarf for many years and this had been in the ground twice already over the years in different areas but never seemed to like where i placed it and was just sitting in a container , thought i would give this a try between the two trees and it seems to be loving it's new spot, never seen it look has fit and healthy as this year. First pic is from Jan of this year and you can see clearly the strong upright growth of the branches with very little side growth , and the tree today very upright stands at just under five foot any outward growing branches i can just nip them out when needed. Plus you have the lovely colour changes through out the year to keep intrest in the garden. Skeeters broom would also look good as well a strong upright grower for sure. No doubt others will have ideas.
Try tiny leaf upright (hard to find, but you are in an area where hard to find is more common) Twombly's red sentinel Some growers offer a variety of red pygmy that stay very narrow. Pixie is another but is not quite a pillar like the others listed above. Or maybe consider Ginkgo biloba 'Elmwood Pillar' aka 'Elmwood', or 'Elmwood Fastigiate'. It eventually would exceed your height restriction but not in your lifetime or mine.
Thanks for your suggestions. I think I'll start looking for a couple of Tsukasa Silhouettes. The planting location for these is about five feet below windows on either side of our chimney on the south side of our house. We want to have shade in the summer and allow the sun in the winter so the trees will need to grow to be at least 10-15' tall. From what I've seen with my Tsukasa they are a fairly aggressive grower so if I can find them now about 5 feet we should get the size needed in a couple of years. The Twombly's Red Sentinel would likely have a wider spread than the Tsukasa but if I am unable to find suitable Tsukasas I would opt for the Twombly's. Although we are in the Pacific Northwest we get over 16 hours of daylight and the south side of our house has over 10 hours of intense sunshine so I'm a not sure how a Wilson's Pink would do and also not sure if it would get enough height. And to JT1, Twombly's are anything but hard to find around here. We have three or four large specimens in our neighborhood.
The tree I was referring to as harder to find is the 'Tiny leaf', but it is too slow growing to reach your windows anytime soon. Acer palmatum 'Tiny Leaf'
