The maples pictured in Book for Maples are magnificently photographed & ideal. It is a joy just to look at the plates but I would rather look at the plants. Does anyone know where to buy more of these cultivars? We all have some of them but many many of them I simply do not see on nursery lists (and I look at many of those). I know of 1 nurseryman (to remain nameless to protect his sanity) collecting many of these in the USA but they are not available at present but is he the only one? I appreciate the laws of bringing plants into the USA but I equally appreciate the laws of aesthetics. How do we get more of those beauties into our collections?
You may try buying them ;-))) More seriously, Mike, the key is to have good contacts in Japan to be able to either import the plants or the scions. This is what Maillot has accomplished, if you look at his website, you will see he proposes many of the rare cultivars in Yano's book. I am most mesmerized by his price tag for 'Hikaru genji': 95 euros ($130) for a 1 year old grafted plant (1.5l. pot), the most expensive maple I have ever seen!! Gomero
Also, there is the question of whether some of the more recently selected variegated maples pictured in this beautiful book will prove stable enough for long term cultivation and propogation? I would be willing to bet that at least one or two of them will be so prone to reversion (or other problems) that they will never make it into commercial cultivation in the west, and your friend will never be able to complete his collection. (eg. some of them are listed with introduction dates of 2001 and 2002, and the book was published in 2003.)
