Many acer palmatum lovers in British Columbia are growing specimens created initially by Anja Vogels and Otto Bjornson of Rise 'n Shine Specialty Grafted Japanese Maples in Chilliwack BC. My first specialty maple was purchased from Otto at a VanDusen Garden annual show some years ago. I applaud his work in developing the stock of locally grown grafted maples and am sorry to learn this is ending. I met Otto at the Trout Lake Farmers' Market today May 31/08 and he says that he is almost sold out of his final container stock and will focus on music in the future. He is an accomplished instrumentalist and teacher (www.ottobjornson.ca). Otto is willing to host a group for a workshop to teach grafting and pruning skills at their Chilliwack property. He will involve another grower of rootstock and, at end of day, each person will go home with 25 newly grafted specimens. This would be a day long event with lunch arranged. Anyone interested in participating should contact me. When the level of interest is apparent, we can then develop a program and circulate details. The costs involved would be shared equally between participants and the amount will depend on the inclusion, or not, of transportation, supplies or other things to be determined. If interested, message me through the forum. Norm Farrell, North Vancouver
I provide here text of a private email exchange that is worth making public to add information for others: Question--------------------------- May be interested. Are scions supplied or would participants bring their own. Never heard of "Rise n Shine" nursery before this. Did he propagate for commercial nurseries or have his own retail business? Was wondering which cultivars they handled. Thanks for your time. “C” Reply #1 --------------------------- I purchased 7 or 8 varieties from them over the years. He used to attend the VanDusen annual garden show, which is where I made first contact. Today, I purchased Okagami and Ozakazuki from him at Trout Lake Farmers' Market. I know he had about a half-dozen varieties there today, most around 5 years from grafting. I'm not sure but they probably include seiryu, shishigashira, butterfly, katsura, viridis. This is a mom and pop style nursery for Japanese maples and I suspect he has always sold direct through shows and word of mouth. I've seen a few small places growing out acer palmatum in the lower mainland but not grafted specimens that I want to collect. I would like to expand my own collection of dwarf varieties that are unique. I suppose that means importing a number of young plants from Oregon or California but getting the inspections done in the US can be problematic. Most American specialty growers that I've discovered don't bother to export. It might be nice to join or create a group that can bring in interesting examples for own collections and also learn to do backyard propogation. The main imports to BC are the mass planted easy and fast to grow cultivars. Reply #2 --------------------------- Sorry, I didn't answer your question. I suppose it could work either way. I certainly have a few trees that I would like to duplicate so I would probably want to do a mix of currently owned and new varieties. Otto says there is a grower near him who has excellent root stock so, with that taken care of, I suppose the scions could originate anywhere. If we get 8 or 10 collectors, the group may have favourites to share and I assume those would be good performers in this climate. Norm
Hello, This is Otto Bjornson, from rise n shine japanese maples. We are in the process of retiring from our nursery as we are involved in other areas. For many years we have grafted many different varieties of japanese maples, catering mainly to the container/ patio garden grower. We have never dealt with any commercial nurseries, rather, we sold our trees directly to our customers. Each year , since 1993 we have sold approx. 500-600 specimens. We have operated our nursery at a level that has always suited our lifestyle, never feeling the need to "expand" ( besides, quality control is tough enough at a micro level!). I have always enjoyed the process of grafting, so we thought if there was any interest, we would offer a one day workshop to teach and graft your very own maples. If there are 5 interested people, we will offer the following: a full day of learning how to graft, how to select the sine wood, and then grafting 25 of your own trees. We will also supply a lunch. Our fee would be $200 / per person plus the cost of root stock. Currently, there may not be any root stock available for this summer as ordering must be done a year in advance. Our stock of japanes maples ( mother trees) includes many rare cultivators including kasagyama, orido nishiki, atrolineare, shaina, seiryu, okagami, iyama sunago, orange dream, full moon, bonfire, shishigashira, beni kawa, as well as the usual suspects. It may be best to plan for 2009 ( last week of july). , in order to have all the ducks in a row, thanks, otto
i would like to attend such a workshop. i have happened upon the maple habit via a deal i could not refuse on 200 maples... and i have learned to love them. to learn more about these delightful trees would be great. include me in the upcoming workshop. feel free to contact me.
Canada is a bit far for me to travel, but if anyone out there is considering a similar workshop in the UK, I'd definitely be interested. Nicola
