What a joke....I bought an oridono nishiki from houseofmaples ON EBAY....LOOK AT WHAT ARRIVED! What the heLL is it? OBVIOUSLY NOT ORIDO/ORIDONO NISHIKI! It looks alittle like my katsura but less pretty! The new shoots are green not pink or redish pink...The leaves are not deep rich green like they should be and absolutly no variagation! Now i do have an oridono nishiki and asahi zuru and this tree shares nothing in common at all! Please idfentify this dang thing! The label says orida nishiki lol Should i keep it or ask for refund or proper cultivar? It is the least pretty maple i have haha!
Since it seems to have colored stems it could, in fact be the desired plant - or a similar variegated cultivar. Some stems of this one are often striped. Foliage may be only partly variegated or variegated only part of the time. Grow it on to see what it does later.
My Karasu gawa only shows its outstanding variegation in the second flush of leaves. Right now it is green. Late summer is just amazing! I haven't conferred with anyone on this, but assumed it is normal, or at least for my growing conditions. You may be correct, but then perhaps this is as described.
Perhaps it is a seedling from Oridono Nishiki and therefore slightly different? It will settle over the next few years
True-to-nameness of scions depends on budwood being taken from true-to-name stock plants. Which brings up another point, variations in coloring could be attributed to where on a stock plant a scion came from - although this cultivar appears to be chimaeric.
STi, It looks like there is slight variegation and as slight hook in one of the leavs in two of the pictures. I have had experience when all leaves were green on my plants after heavy fertilization. You may want to give this some time. My trees were old at the time and it took a full year for the true colors to return. Often new grafts are fertilized heavly to produce a larger plant. Ed
The bark of new shoots is sometimes pink or pink-striped, which distinguishes it from the similar 'Asahi zuru'. This cultivar is more reliable and has far less non-variegated foliage than some other cultivars such as 'Versicolor'. --Vertrees(Gregory), Japanese Maples (2001, Timber Press, Portland) A similar small plant I got through the mail once I decided after growing for awhile was probably one like 'Versicolor' instead.
Update: The tree has started to show variegation on several leaves...I guess it was over fertilized. I feel like a jackazz now lol!
It's all a learning process in what these plants will do and when they will do it and which locations they are less likely to show their stuff. We have to be wrong a few to numerous times with these plants to better learn how to be right with them. As long as we hone up to when and why we were wrong we can start on working on how to be right. True form Asahi zuru does produce pink stripes on older wood, not so much seen on new or one year old shoots, and is never seen running vertically in the trunk unlike the known forms of Orido nishiki. Even the golden striped form of Orido nishiki has pink outer edging to the golden interior stripes. Karasugawa should not be mentioned in this group of variegates being a pink overtone leaf with white being the primary variegated color. The Vertrees book(s) mentions lack of chlorophyll for a reason and that is due to the fact that the true form plant seldom has green showing in the face of the leaf but green can be seen on the undersides of the leaf. Yes, Ron, if we think in terms of the fact that Europe once had several forms of Versicolor, which were considered to be a variegated group of the same namesake, it makes one wonder where did they (Versicolor group) all go and can anyone today Id upon sight the old Maple, the same Maple shown on the dust jacket for the Vertrees second edition book? Jim
'Oridono nishiki' and 'Asahi zuru' are cultivars that seem to keep putting out new leaves permanently. In my place and at the location where they are planted, the leaves for the first month and a half are basically green, then the variegation begins becoming more pronounced as the season advances. This basically coincides with what others describe. Gomero
