I jus was browsing the web, and find this info with some pictures of a nursery in Spain (SPECIMEN PLANTS from CASAITA NURSERY N. SPAIN) specialized in BIG specimen trees. See two of the pictures taken from that place: According to the comments below this pictures, The fist pic is a AP 'Garnet' with 27 cm (10.6") girth with 3 m (118") wide canopy! (priced 1800 euros) The second pic is another Garnet, 37 cm girth and 3.25m wide canopy (8000 euros!!) the last one, according the description is an arbutus unedo with +100 years old... the price? 9000 euros (2004 list price). I you want to see more of this fantastic specimens go to this link: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/176569902dlNlSj?start=0 nelran
There are similar outfits operating here, I have seen some huge weeping laceleaf maples at local sales yards. I have the impression most of these are coming out of residential properties that are being remodeled, renovated or re-developed. Suspect in some instances it may just be new owners who don't like the tree and want something different in the space, like the people up the street from me who moved in and removed a paperbark maple about 15' tall - and replaced it with some small hybrid roses like you might by in boxes at the drug store for less than 5 dollars each. For some years there has always been an amazing weeping laceleaf maple in a show garden at the NW Flower and Garden Show, probably a different specimen each time - each one of them multiple decades old. It does make you wonder. I've got one probably not even waist high that was planted here in the 1960s!
People may wonder how comes a Spanish nursery can propose such a specimens, Spain climate is usually not identified as favourable to Japanese maples. However this nursery is in Northwestern Spain (Galicia) which has a climate not far from Irish and a rich acidic soil, anything grows there. Gomero
Ron, Gomero, Until you posted your comments; I was wondering why and how some nurseries could obtain 100 yrds old trees to sell. I already know that this kind of things have sense if you're selling old wines, or other spirits, but I think that for trees you really must have a lot of patient and envision to grow and keep healty trees for so long time to be marketed 100 years later. So your answers bring me light to this issue and are pretty reasonable and logical. Sadly, here, where I live, I don't think I will have the opportunity to get one of these huge specimens in a yard sale.... (Probably I'll just can get a hickory tree... in chucks or logs). Nelran
