I have a big disappointment with the acer pseudoplatanus cultivars selected for their bright salmon pink display in the spring; they do not color in my garden. I have one 'Brilliantissimum' and one 'Prinz Handjéry' which are well proved, stable selections. I have tried throughout the years several expositions: full sun, morning sun, dappled shade but in all cases nothing, no pink just a pale yellow as can be seen in the pics. Talking to one of my suppliers, who is in zone 7 in Eastern France, he said that several other customers with gardens in other areas of Southern France (zones 8 and 9) reported the same problem. So it appears that the trees are pink in a zone 8 of Northern France but not in my zone 8 in Southern France, even though temperature profiles could be comparable. In fact this year our spring has been very cold and rainy so the trees, when leafing out, had no way to tell whether they were in zone 8 or 7. In addition, from the thread on leafout dates, I see that Emery's pseudoplatanus leafed out at about the same time as mines. I would like to hear from others growing these salmon pink cultivars in zones 8 or 9 as to whether or not they have this problem. Gomero
'Brilliantissimum' looks terrific here at the moment, quite pink - I have the true cultivar, offered in the past by F.W. Byles Co. Others here are liable to be growing 'Prinz Handjery' under this name, probably mostly because Buchholz nursery has wholesaled that one to local retail outlets in the past as 'Brilliantissimum'.
Very curious... Brilliantissimum is very shrimp-pink here, not yet fading at all. The same is true for Leat's Cottage. Puget Pink (similar to the Prinz I believe) and Miracle Rose are my other pink sycamores, but they have yet to leaf out. Simon Louis Freres also shows a very large pink component; to a lesser extent so do Esk Sunset and Brigada Revolution. -E
'Puget Pink' was raised from seed of 'Prinz Handjery'. My understanding is that since most of them resembled the seed parent, Heronswood sold seedlings as 'Puget Pink' a well as a grafted clone.
Hi Gomero-- This is VERY interesting. I've noticed big variations from year to year in a number of cultivars, and I can't account for them. But then, many seem to be quite consistent. For example: For me, Orange Dream just piddled along for a number of years--nothing special. And yet Peter Gregory said it was one of his favorite cultivars, so I knew it must be something special. And then, one year, it was truly outstanding, and I understood why he admired it so. The colors were just intoxicating. I can only guess that it has something to do with the previous year's nutrition and storage--maybe even conditions during winter storage. Temperature, water regime, amount of sun the previous summer, time of dormancy, depth of dormancy, duration of the period during which they are breaking dormancy--I'm not enough of a plant physiologist to know what might be the cause. On the pseudoplatanus cultivars, I've found that they generally have good color here, but even so they vary from year to year. One year, Brilliantissima was so gorgeous, I brought it inside (I grow it in a pot--no room for a full-sized tree in my little plot), and people were startled to realize it was a real plant--it was so perfect. It's always attractive, but sometimes surpassingly. I fertilize my plants rather haphazardly--sometimes they get a dose or two of slow-release fertilizer, sometimes nothing. My only thought is that acidity or alkalinity might have an effect. I believe I have read that fall color tends to be more intense in more acidic soil, and I know from personal experience that there's a correlation between spring color and fall color. (I planted my maple hedge based on spring colors, and I later found that the fall variation in color was as great as the spring variation). Is your soil acidic or alkaline? I'd try throwing down a few handfuls of lime or some acidifying agent--change the regime--and see if that has an effect. That's one of the appeals of maples, isn't it--we don't know what will happen or why--the causes of the variations. D.
Hi Gomero,i have 8 cultivar of pseudoplatanus 4 with good spring leaves pink my conditions of cultivation exp. -open sun PH - neutral composition of soil -clayey dreinage - fast ,how you know my garden is hill Nursery Italian for Brillantissimun,Prinz H.(Fabrizio Fessia) Holland nursery for Simon L.F.,Puget .pink(Esveld) fertilize-Nitroposka Blu spezial ciaoooooo
Thanks everybody for the answers. If Alex, who is in a much warmer zone than I, gets the pink colors, then using the climate as the explanation for the lack of good pinks does not seem right. Also Seattle is not too different from here. Anybody growing them in half shade? Thus I am puzzled since the trees in question were really pink when I bought them, since I did see them. The only remaining variable is soil which in my case is heavily amended clay soil with now a few inches of good loam in the surface; slightly acidic and no fertilization. This is pretty much quite standard conditions. Is there some micronutrient missing? Daniel, Concerning the other maples, I am not surprised for what you say about 'Orange Dream', it takes several years to some cultivars to get well established and bring out their best. My shirasawanum 'Jordan' has been rather mediocre for three years and then this year, finally, I obtained the beautiful yellow for which it was selected. Gomero
