I am quite new to gardening as well as being new to British Columbia. We live on top of an extremely high hill (called a mountain in Victoria) overlooking the water and we get frequent strong winds from all directions, especially in the winter. Also, compounding the difficulty, our home is on glacial rock and we had to truck in dirt for the planting we've done. Yesterday I bought a Lion's Mane Maple about 3.5 ft. high, trunk only about 3/4 inch in diameter. In looking through various websites about this plant I have read that it does better in shade; it does better in sun; it does better in partial shade. I also read to keep it out of strong winds. I have a good spot for it with quite abit of soil and room to grow, but it would be in nearly full sun and exposed to wind. Can I make this spot work? Would staking it be enough to prevent wind damage? Would it be preferable to put it in a container until it is larger and more capable to withstand the wind? Your help would be most appreciated because I love the look of this plant and so want to do right by it.
Just saw your question as I was looking for information on Lion's Head maples. I have a Shishigashira on the west side of our house in Snohomish WA for three years and it has done extremely well. Gets lots of sun during the hottest time of the day and survived 5 degree F last winter. Hope you bought the tree and are enjoying it now.
My Shishigashira is 12 years in the ground, full sun, very windy site. This is one of the toughest Japanese maples in my garden.
I had a one potted outdoors all last winter here, and it got down to single digits. I piled snow over it so it got some insulation, but it did fine in fact. I agree they seem to be rather tough. It is in part shade.
