Before spring gets in full gear I wanted to take some time and check out my rough bark maple, Acer palmatum 'Ara Kawa'. http://thegardenyears.blogspot.com/ I added it to my second garden diary video for the week. As I was looking at the tree I was considering are there any other better rough boark cultivars or are they all pretty similar? And are there any red leafed rough bark maples?
Great video, thanks, and glad to see spring is coming to TN since I'll be returning to my Nashville first home for a long weekend. The rough bark maples are one series that I do not have in my collection and probably should. That poor conifer, well, I guess it was a nice idea and probably has good marketing, too.
Issai nishiki (sp?) supposedly is more rough, but I haven't seen it yet. I have arakawa and ibo nishiki, and although the leaves are slightly different I haven't noticed a major difference in the roughness of the bark yet (although they are both less than 4 years old and haven't developed completely). I haven't heard of any red leafed forms yet, and I would think that would be a bit of a stretch since the genetics are quite a bit different from what I can tell. I will also note that a pretty good percentage comes true from seed. I have collected seed from them, and a couple of years after grafting some of the seedlings started showing rough bark characteristics. I currently have a handful in my collection where the rootstock has somewhat rough bark while the cultivar is smooth.
