As we seem to be back after the break and our beloved trees have moved into summer now I thought I'd start a thread. Amber Ghost, showing a lot of different colours due to being partly shaded. Moonrise, no longer orange but still beautiful Volcano, slowly losing it's heat Jordan, still glowing in the shade.
Nice one! Just checked back, and seeing the forum is up is a pleasure. Haven't been taking many pictures, but here is A. rubrum 'Candy Ice' on 29 June.
Hi, long time no see... ;-) The tree in a big grey pot is Zelkova sinense, the rest you will identify I'm sure. A few seedlings, 2,3,4 years old (some need repotting). The one that was "outstanding" suffered a bit from the weather, so I put it in almost full shade, and added a little liquid fertilizer for flowering house plants (!). About two weeks later, it produced tiny leaves : ??? May 13th, and today, July 8th :
Metamorphosa looking much better this year..bit wonky as I bit the bullet and cut off one of the Y branches as it developed a big split
Higasayama has grown 2 - 3 foot over the last two years (in a pot) Jordan - in a brighter location this year..pushing out some nice colours, rather than the staple lime green. Chitose-yama
We had hail storms in Spring, which makes this the perfect time to show wider shots of maples. From the "new part" of the Aceretum, a view back into more mature maples. Prince Camille de Rohan starts to make a real presence as the summer advances, making a nice contrast with cappadocicum 'Aureum' and other. The only non maples are the Ash in the background. A. monspessulanum and Beni tsukasa form a backdrop for a spot of red: the roses climbing into the Malus 'Everest'. At the side entrance, red dissectums circle 'Deshôjô'. shaded by larger maples. Orangeola, Inaba shidare, Mischa, Bewley's Red, Crimson Queen. The greenish maple on the right is 'Nokoribo'. The path from the entrance into the Aceretum is bordered by Acers pensylvanicum, Kinran, Palmatifolium, Utsu-semi. Cosmos is just starting a presence behind, and A. amplum is doing well so far. Hopefully it will make a big tree, replacing the large davidii 'Earnest Wilson' that died in 2022. -E
Since all my maples but one or two are potted, it's becoming very hard to keep them healthy these days : today 32°C, and we'll have at least a week of high temperatures and no rain. Except a little on Sunday, right when we're planning a Bar-B-Q. Still don't want to sell my house and buy a smaller one with more land : the older I get, the less I want to be further away from a local grocery. 'Butterfly', 'Hana matoi' (my friends love it!), 'Como', very healthy : 'Sango kaku' is in full sun and doesn't seem to like it when potted, Arakawa hasn't been repotted for at least 3 years and is looking much better though in a much smaller container : Acer laevigatum is looking fine :
I'm afraid its twin is not very happy. It keeps dying back. There is a little new growth, but not much. Not sure what to do except continue to cut. Maybe should try some hydrogen peroxide. Yours all look very good. My Como has seen more sun also, but is a super attractive maple. Here are two related maples, a quite large A. x conspicuum 'Silver Cardinal', and a "getting larger" A. rubescens 'Red Flamingo' (on right, under the Silver Maple). The other maples in the second pic are ltr Shojo, A. shirasawanum ssp shirasawanum, Esk Sunset, Hikasa yama. There's more in the background, but hard to see distinctly. The naming difference between the conspicuum (by definition) and the rubescens (by convention) is a load of horse hockey. A poster-child for nursery marketing malarkey. I think it possible that the distinction may not officially survive 2025... I hope not, anyway.
Too much rain maybe ? Here it's much drier than in Normandy... Makes me think of the only "comédie musicale" I really love. I really hope for the rain every day or two :
Emperor one x2 Kasagi yama Unknown Moonrise(seiryu background) Nathan x2 (mikawa background) Summer gold Taylor x2 Ukigumo x2 Osakazuki Photos taken today
They are all beautiful. I love everything about the last one, but I believe it is something else, not ‘Osakazuki’.
Do you have any idea which cultivar it is? It is grafted and sold to me as osakazuki. Here are spring and fall pictures
I would love to know the ID of the cultivar… I want to have it… Definitely not ‘Osakazuki’ as far as I can tell. Although, you should not go by my opinion on the matter, try to search online for possible matches. I hope someone else comments on the ID, perhaps I am way off.
In addition, there are at least two, and most likely three or four cultivars on the market as 'Osakazuki', which are not the same as each other, and as the other people have pointed out the one pictured seems too deeply divided in the leaf to be any of them. It is not a new thing either - there is an article which references the curator of the Westonbirt collection in 1933 complaining that the "new" 'Osakazuki's being imported were different than the original ones:
Looks very much like Chitoseyama to me, here’s mine in April, mine is now red like yours..in a very sunny position
Here are a few pics I took in mid-July A pretty seedling of A. shirasawanum, that seems true to type, coloring in the sun. Just potted up. After is a beautiful A. shirasawanum ssp. shirasawanum (not the parent), that is quite heavily shaded. It has been sick with verticillium for 15 odd years, and I thought the whole top would die back this winter, as the buds were very small. But all the rain seems to have helped. Certainly it will lose the top within the next couple of years, but that has now happened many times. There are always lots of vigorous shoots from the bottom. Acer amplum ssp. catalpifolium isn't very hardy, so large ones aren't common. This one is grafted on platanoides, and has survived major bark injury from spring frosts. I managed to get a seedling a couple of years ago, so it's waiting in the wings. This A. sikkimense was collected in the Himalayas. I took a pic of the roots to show how well the grooved airpots prevent any sort of circling root. Also not very hardy, we'll see. I thought Pendulum Julian had a particularly attractive color this year. A. sieboldianum 'Sekka-no-kegon' is how I have this listed, but I need to do some research before adding it to the cultivar DB. The most common variant seems to be Seki no kegon, which is how Maillot currently lists it. Since I got the plant from him, I would have listed it however he had it at the time, though of course maybe I made a mistake. Whatever the name is, a very attractive plant that comes purple with the sun, making a nice contrast with the green underneath. -E
Very happy that my tallest Ukigumo has decided to bud all the up the trunk..it’s been bare for 6 years, just a top canopy to date..I wonder whether this is a reaction to me repotting it in April.
All of the rain, and now warmth, has caused one of my un-named selections to show a lot of variegation, and throw some almost pure sports. Also, the lovely 'Ellen', graft now healed, in a 3l airpot. Hana matoi is looking great but as always very tough to photograph. The green parts are much more brown/red
