My 6 year old 5' high in the ground full sun Beni shi en is throwing out some wild reverted branches. (check out attachment files) I have two other beni shi en same size in 25 gal containers and they are doing fine. Has anyone else experienced reversions with Beni shi en?
Since we are dealing with a supposed seedling selection from an atropurpureum as opposed to certain variegated Maples, then I'd not worry about the more vigorous growth. Just monitor it and see what it does next and see if more of the same growth appears elsewhere. In time the larger and wider lobed leaves should scale down closer to normal in size. It is not unusual for an atropurpureum to throw out an over sized leaf. Although rarely seen, even a dissectum can do it on occasion. Your plant is telling you it is happy more so than giving you a cause for concern just yet. There is some doubt from the few photos that are posted online as to what this Maple should look like a far as the size and shape of the leaves anyway. I have not grown this one or 'Shien' (probably more commonly spelled 'Shi en') so I am not going to be much help. Jim
Hi Robert, I have the same issue with Geisha as you might have seen. What I have seen with the over sized red leaves is that the leaves haven't spread back into the tree from the branch they are isolated on, but the size of the sport is growing. What I did this year was prune the new growth off the sport as it was very vigorous. I cut multiple chutes that look like yours do with as many as 6 or more new nodes. This growth was progressing before the rest of the typical leaves had even matured. Since I truncated the activity on the sport to try to redirect it back to the typical chutes, not much has happened, and I have seen no more activity from the sport. Good luck. Michael
I contacted my friend Harold Johnston, the man who introduced the patented 'Beni shi en' and he told me of another cultivar that he originated. A sport from the same f. atropurpureum that gave birth to 'Beni shi en'. It is called 'Purple Mask' and looks a lot like this. Look on page 194 in Vertrees 3rd edition. Harold comes up with some very interesting maples and he probably deserves them as he is one of the nicest fellows in the maple business.
