I'm wondering if someone at Stanley & Sons got the wrong photo for this page: http://www.stanleyandsons.com/productdisplay.cfm?product=ACR 2965 If this is what a.p. 'Red Spider' looks like, I must not have one. And, neither does Esveld: http://www.esveld.nl/~laur/index.php?lan=eng&s=plant&q=product_details_pl&id=3291 I also find it interesting that S&S promotes most JM cultivars as "Full Sun" and hardy to zone 5. Maybe full sun means something different in Western Oregon than it does here? Maybe those are Sunset climate zones rather than USDA zones? Bryan
S&S's and Esveld's plants are certainly not the same! Looks like they're not the only ones confused about it: http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2004-34,RNWE:en&q=Acer%20palmatum%20'Red%20Spider'&sa=N&tab=wi Maybe go by whichever company has the better reputation. Or better, find the original description of the cultivar by the person who named it, and see what that says. Yes, full sun in rainy, cloudy western Oregon is different to dry Idaho.
