My interest for maples came from my passion for bonsai: most "valued" bonsai are conifers such as junipers or pines, but I prefer deciduous trees for the change in colours throughout the seasons. I have this Acer campestre from a "bird's seedling" that I kept in a small pot for a couples of years before planting it in a hedge, and then I uprooted it, pruned it drastically and put it in a bonsai pot. Bonsai techniques such as wiring, pruning and defoliating it to reduce the size of the leaves of the second growth can make quite an ordinary material look nice. To some extent, these techniques can be used for non-bonsai trees like potted maples to give them a pleasant shape. The two photos show this Acer in June, already having leaves that suffered from the heat and the sun, just before removing all the leaves. The second photo shows it as it looks like today. Our club displayed a few trees today at a local plant fair, there are more spectacular specimens that I will post when I get the photos.
More photos from our trees: A 'Deshojo'. Wonderful colours in the spring, but the autumn colours are not bad either: 'Shishigashira': Can't read and don't remember the names of these two: The second one I brought, Acer palmatum palmatum, "root-over-rock", from a cutting done... many years ago:
Thats great AlainK, Maples inspire me while im deep into Pinus bonsai, too. Here in Vietnam, I should grow those in containers, with mostly inorganic soil mix to better control conditions. As you know, humidity here is high, fungy easily attack plants. One Japanese bonsai friend told me to insist with Deshojo, while Iroha and Yama momiji are main materials. Shishigashira is really great, but as one friend said, it should be trained in ground 2 years, than uproot to bonsai pot 1 year. How about yours there?
