Lovely! I really want to try and get hold of a Peve multicolour still. I've managed to grab a First Ghost and Reticulatum Como from Hippo the last couple of days as soon as they became available, First Ghost went out of stock in under 3 hours! They still have Uncle Ghost available at the moment for anyone in the UK who has been trying to get one!
Here are some pics from the last couple of days. We had a night where it only got down to 10°C, which seems to have convinced everyone to go as quickly as possible. Of course now it's back down to around 7 and piddling; we could really use some serious wet, there's hardly any mud at all. Not normal for spring in Mudville. 'Murasaki kiyohime', A. laevigatum doing nicely (thanks Alain! the only living one I have now), 'Carnival' x 2, 'Nakahara beni' x 2, a very exciting flower, the first, on a tree purported to be A. thompsonii, I hope this will aid in the identification! an AP selection I like a lot, with bark like Aoyagi but dark maroon leaves in spring, 'Holata', A. aff. forestii, A. rubescens wild collection, A. palmatum selection, A. cordatum, the red cloud of 'Shin Chisio' leafing out, in front of conspicuum 'Phoenix', A. diabolicum seedling leafing out, A. oliverianum leafing out, A. sinense x 2, the variation of leaf color is very wide, 'Koto maru', the very lovely A. amplum, just planted this winter.
Shame you can't get up to Packhorse farm in Derbyshire he had some really nice ones there last Tuesday when i was there (PMC) , so nice i actually bought one myself which is just starting to unfurl nicely. As you may well be aware he does not do plants by "Mail Order" it's a case of go there and select your own , but it's always worth the visit, plus he usually has acers which are not listed on his website as well.
I didn't know this place existed!! It's a long old drive for me, 3 hours give or take. I'd be tempted to set a day aside some time though and make the trip up but I've no idea when I'll have time to do that unfortunately. That one looks like a nice size you have there, are the prices reasonable?
Probably one of the best nurseries in the UK to buy your maples from !! and his prices are excellent and fair. Have dealt with this guy for well over twenty six years now, many trees which i bought years ago as youngsters are now well established mature trees the PMC which i showed you cost £27.50 . If you do make the journey it's always advisable to ring him/text before hand just to confirm he is open on the days he publishes , saying that i think he is now opening on a weekends as well for this year check his website ?? Worth the trip if you are wanting some beautiful maples in your garden.
I envy everyone who is enjoying their maples' new leaves and I am inspired by the pictures you post. Here, on eastern mid-coastal Vancouver Island, buds remain tight.
Still very minimal spring movement here in Chilliwack as well ( 100 km inland from vancouver). It has been unseasonably cool for several weeks. Just waiting for the bud explosion The only tree that is really starting to open up is the shishigashira that I dug out of the ground 2 weeks ago. Nothing like shocking the root system I guess
So I have an interesting one for you! I bought a Katsura at the end of the year after it dropped it's leaves. And 2 others fairly cheap during the summer which had already lost their spring colours. I also had the big piece of material I'm gradually turning into a bonsai which I wasn't sure of its cultivar, but had been suggested in the forum it was also a Katsura. Now they've emerged this spring and 2 are bright yellow (one labelled Katsura, and the 'unknown' one), the other 2 are far more orange. Weirdly the 2 orange ones were actually labelled as 1 Katsura, and 1 orange dream but they look identical. They also look nothing like my actual Orange dream!! Very confused.
@Cattwooduk I have a 'Katsura' that seems more yellow and my mother has one that seems more orange. I am fairly certain I have read somewhere (Vertrees/Gregory?) that there are two forms of 'Katsura', one of which is slower growing, almost a semi dwarf, and a stronger growing form that is more attractive to nursery businesses because it is easier/quicker to produce saleable plants. Not sure if this is true or not but might explain slightly different colours. There is also the question of 'Katsura hime' which could have previously been imported to the UK from Japan (it's been around in Japan since at least the 1970's) and lost the hime part of the name somewhere along the way. As for 'Orange Dream', it is a week or two slower to leaf out than 'Katsura' and has a different shaped leaf. 'Orange Dream' is typically 7-lobed vs 5-lobed and the leaf geometry is very different. Edit: Also, in UK mainstream garden centres/DIY stores and the like I have often seen obviously mislabeled 'Katsura's so if you bought from such a venue after they lost their spring colour it could be complete potluck as to what you have! I think kids pull out the labels, or they get blown out during watering, and the staff, not knowing any better, just put them back in wherever....
Thanks for clearing that up! Maybe I have both varieties then if that's true?! The 2 next to each other which are very orange are the two I picked up for £6.99 each at Lidl last year, so I was sort of thinking they could be absolutely anything but figured it was worth a punt. One was labelled Orange Dream, the other Katsura. They looked really forced with long internodes and bendy growth, so I cut them back quite a bit and changed the awful peat soil for something better. Plan is only really to grow them out and give them away as gifts or maybe sell them. The more yellow Katsura I bought from my usual garden centre, and I know it came from Credale nursery where I've been a few times before, so have more faith in that one actually being Katsura! A couple of others I took today - Hino Tori Nishiki has already begun to gradually lose it's shocking pink and head towards a green on the inner leaves. Kasen Nishiki which is new to me, really liking this one! Katsura with flowers... pretty much every single one of my maples is LOADED with them this year! Baby Ghost Amber Ghost is my absolute favourite of the Ghosts so far, it's also putting on the strongest growth, I'm glad I bought 2 last year!
Just starting to warm up a little after what seems like endless rain and cold. But the good thing is that a lot of my trees are leafing out slower this year and that bodes well, as the Spring frosts have gone. So here are a few of my babies this morning. Edgewood golden Volcano Lionheart Deshojo Fenna Carnival
That's great! We still have another month to be "safe", though for the moment it's looking OK. 'Volcano' is interesting, I don't see anything about it on the web. What's the history and particularity? Edit, I did find a link, I had spelled wrong! Cold weather here with more wind and rain, but I've been out and taken a few shots as more maples start to leaf out. I've tried to label individual pics, there are 2 of a variegated A. distylum, and Orange Dream in the front yard that didn't get a label.
Here's more from the same series. Again hopefully labeled. Took some of these in the rain, the flowers are all stuck together on the negundo.
And a final few, to finish out the group. The sun came back out, who'd have thought? The unlabeled pic is A. palmatum, which I planted down in the valley near the stream.
The are hiding/biding their time here in the North :) , won't breath a sigh of relief until mid may at least !!
Here is my contributions for the Spring 23. Amagi Shigure Mikazuki Shin Deshojo Butterfly Ariadne Ikandi White Peaches Peve Multicolor Aureum
It's so good to see this forum up and running again, at just the right time too! Thank you so much! I have to admit that, whithout this forum, I didn't have the motivation to take a proper amount of pictures, and this isn't right. Our maples are giving out their best, and all I did was lazily basking in their beauty. Now I have a chance to redeem myself. Akane, Butterfly, Kawahara Rose, Seigen, Unknown palmatum (I took most of these near the end of March, except the last one)
A couple of shots of Katsura, this is the one that seems more on the yellow side: Most JM's still not out yet, these next ones are close to the house so may be slightly ahead of schedule, Murakumo (AKA Marakumo) and Orange Dream emerging with Red Filigree Lace: This is Wou nishiki which is consistently earlier than most, about a week behind Murasaki kiyohime, which is out of focus in the background:
Okushimo / Gwen's Rose Delight / O-sakazuki / Bihoo / Butterfly / Beni maiko / Trompenburg / Rainbow / Purple Ghost / Tsuma gaki / Atrolineare :
