hi everyone, i just can't find books, or any resources, depicting the fullgrown cultivars' shape. i realize trees' look can vary greatly, but as a newbie, visual learner, verbal descriptions of trees' form with a leaf closeup doesn't help me. a photo, despite its particularity,or even a simple graphic, would be great!!!. does anyone know of such a resource? also, i'm wondering why most tree books/catalogs describe height but not mature canopy width. can width be estimated from height? debviolet
Hi debviolet, welcome to the forums. Have you checked the reference books mentioned here that should help with some cultivars, maybe available through a local library ? www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=2773
debviolet, If you list the cultivars in the post you may find people with mature trees that would be willing to share pictures. I have some fairly mature cultivars mostly older cultivars that I can post. Ed
I agree with Ed and Chimera. For 'classical' cultivars it is also possible to check out the websites of suppliers. Esveld, for instance, has a lot of pictures of mature trees. It is more difficult to find pics of mature trees for cultivars which have been introduced in the last 20 years; for these a forum request is a good approach. Gomero
Just to add to Ed and Gomeros suggestions, Buchholz is another good source of photos and information at www.buchholznursery.com/plant_library_search.html?page=18
thanks chimera , ed, and gomeros for those the ideas. i took to the library and found 'maples for gardens' which had more pix than the vertrees books. as i was paging through the van gelderens' book, i noticed that their estimation of height was significantly larger than the vertrees' estimates and those in the greer gardens catalog. omure yama would grow over 25' according to van gelderen and 18' or less according to other sources. everyone agreed that the trees' width equals its height; i was hoping to use this tree a woodland garden but a 25' wide tree may be too much for the site. such big discrepancies make placement planning iffy as well. should i always use the largest number i see in making decisions? i like to imagine these trees lasting here a long time and don't want to crowd them; how far apart from each other are these trees usually planted? is there a rule of thumb, given contradictory or nonexistent info--like when the cultivar is new? thnks in advance for helping such a raw recruit to these trees! debviolet /
debviolet, Japanese maples are long lived but relatively slow growing trees. It may take 20 or more years to reach the sizes quoted in books. Older specimens I have seen in arboreta etc seem to have grown to fit the space available to them, but they can easily be pruned if they grow further than you wish.
There is a CD that I bought that is pretty good. It has 425 cultivars and they show quite a few mature trees. They have about 4 pics for each tree. It's 34.95 with the shipping. If you go Eastwoods Nurseries (www.japanesemaples.com) you could order one. Kay
Michael Dirr's Manual of Woody Plants (or something to that effect) is a great book for some of the more "common" maples like Sugar Maple (A. saccharum), Red Maple (A. rubrum), etc. He's pretty good with his measurements, giving both width and height. No pics though.
thanks saratbernheim and kaydye, i rooted (haha) around the net and found pictures from some of the sources that you mentioned. after a fruitless (ha) hour of searching, i found still needed pictures of mature Acir 'Pacific Fire' and Apalm 'Coral Magic'. Perhaps someone has pictures of a maple that is very close in the mature growth look, that would be helpful too. debviolet
