Is anyone else having an unusual abundance of bloom/seed this year? It is almost scary there is so much on maples that have never even bloomed before. Kay
Yes, more than ever. Some varieties that never had flowers have them this year. I think it's because of the harsh growing season last year. I remove them from my container grown and bonsai maples. I want the available energy to go for more productive things. For the landscape maples, that I try to keep a desired size and form, it saves me from having to prune new growth. The flowers form in-between the two leaf pairs, stopping growth on that stem, which saves me from pruning.
Yes, I have vast quantities of flowers on dozens of cultivars, including some, such as 'Butterfly,' that don't ordinarily flower very much. I would guess that the reason, here at least, is that we had a late frost last year, which killed nearly all of the flowers. Whatever resources might have gone into last year's seed was saved up, and now they're putting them to use. I had almost no seed last year. One result has been that this spring, I don't have thousands of seedlings to deal with, and so I'm getting all kinds of garden tasks done. A very good thing, overall. My one-year-old seedlings of palmatum-'Autumn Moon' crosses are developing some interesting colors this year that weren't evident last year. At least, I think that's what they are--the seed I collected from 'Autumn Moon,' and I assume it's more likely that they were pollinated by palmatum cultivars than that they self-pollinated--especially given the variation among the seedlings. I also have some surprising variations among 'Karasugawa' seedlings. No idea who the fathers are, though.
I'm seeing less than average seed crop this year on most varieties. Some varieties that bloomed and seeded last year had no flowers at all this year.
I can't resist planting seed. I'll have to send some to the maple society seed fund. I also use them as a project with my sixth grade students. The leftover seedlings from the last time I used them at school are exploding this year. I'm beginning to realize that they will become trees over time:) Kay
Hi Kay, I find seed growing one of the most fun parts of maples! You never know what's going to turn up, and there are always lots of changes during the first couple of years. I was too lame to get my act together for the distribution program last year, and had almost no seed of my own thanks to a horrid wet summer (although the maples seem to be putting on a lot of growth this year, so they didn't seem to mind it too much). My seed this year is mostly thanks to a forum contributor, to whom I'm very grateful. Last year there were the normal amount of flowers but seed didn't wripen. This year there are not many flowers on most plants, but what's interesting is that some that have never flowered before are doing so: A pictum, A pectinatum ssp forrestii, A pectinatum ssp laxiflorum, A amplum 'Gold Coin', etc. I'd love to get some viable seed out of some of these... cheers, -E
Some of the flowers on my Orange dream developed seeds. This is the first time it's ever had seeds in all the seasons with this tree. They are white with hints of pink.
