Someone started this conversation in the GardenWeb Conifers forum, and I thought it would be fun to start a similar conversation here. What is the source of your Maple addiction? How did it get started? Who or what influenced you to become the crazed maple addict that you are today? No, this is not a 12-step program!! LOL For me, it started with a landscaping project. I was scanning on-line sources for different plants because I wanted something unique (translation - something you can't find at Lowes). Initially I wanted some conifers, Witch Hazel, jazzy looking hostas, etc. I happened upon the web site for Fantastic Plants, which is a Tennessee nursery not too far from me. Shipping would be minimal, I thought, and I could feel confident the plants they were selling worked well in my climate. As soon as I browsed their on-line store and saw the A.p. 'Osakazuki' I was a gonner! I ordered it and 'Kasagi yama', along with a number of other plants, and as soon as the JMs budded out I went into OCD overdrive! World Plants was my next target, then Eastwood, Eastfork (Sam, you're awesome!!), and - well, it just gets worse from there! Or better, if you prefer! :D
What a great thread topic, K4! I am glad you brought it to our maple category. I haven't the time to put my story down right this second, but I'll be back as soon as I have a minute! I think it will be great to hear everyone's tales of budding addiction. :)
OH NO! That's terrible! Especially because my story isn't all that interesting. :) ... Growing up in Austin, Texas, I NEVER saw any notable JMs. As a gardener, I had to satisfy myself with cacti and succulents and native/adapted plants - which left me plenty of room to play anyway. I actually miss my scrillion different agaves now that I live in a more hospitable climate for plants. Anyway, all my life, I was surrounded by a family of the green thumbed, and the plants that would never do in our alkaline "soil" (and I use the term loosely, as it was more like clay and caliche dust on a huge limestone shelf) were the ones that were most admired and drooled over - azaleas, rhododendrons, camelias... all the cool weather + lush, sweet soil lovers. Those gardeners that could sustain - even for short periods - a green landscape that included these beauties were akin to witches and wizards - and rightly regarded as magical beings. :) It was in a yard like this - that I now see as sad, high-maintenance, unnatural square pegs in round holes - that I saw my first red weeping Japanese maple. I was truly enchanted by it's etherial glow and wavy, wandering branches. I NEVER thought I could grow one of those! I thought they were surely too picky, too high-maintenance, too demanding of those unknowable magic powers! I read books about them, realizing it wasn't ENTIRELY unheard of to grow one in Texas, but never attempted to grow any in my own yard. Years later, I lucked into an apprenticeship with a very artful landscape designer in Maine; it was there my love of maples mushroomed into it's current state of adoration and obsession. In Maine I discovered that JMs were truly TREES - not just bonsai and stunted shrubs in forced landscapes. To see them in all their aged, natural majesty was something glorious. I was willing to try for my own bonsai and stunted shrubs after that. :) I started with just a few in pots as I moved all around the deep south over the next handfull of years. I never had high hopes for them, as they had to endure such a harsh existence, but enjoyed them all the same. Unfortunately, this was the dark "killing time" for me as I learned more and got better in keeping them. I never had more than 10 at once, and I only have ONE now that made it through this time - a 'Sharp's Pygmy' that I bought from Mountain Maples in the late 90's. That 'SP' is a hardy fellow for sure. It has only been in the last five years that my actual collection has begun to represent my current stage of maple madness. In this short period I have gone from 10 to more than 110 Ap cultivars and 20 or so, of other acer species. As spring teases me I begin to fight the jones to BUY more, more, more!!! I have already had a little taste though - as I recently got my hands on 'Mary Catherine'. :) Delicious!
My "source" is 5 fold: 1) Accident. We took in water into a room (our babies nursery!) adjacent to the garden. I was really bummed that we had to replace with much hardscape. To soften the look, I borrowed a book from the library on container gardens. Originally I wanted bonsai, but realized that JMs give me all the look of bonsai that i wanted but less of the things that I didn't. 2) Vertrees and Gregory book. Also a library find but then quickly got my copy on amazon. The pictures, the stunning variety, the loving way he described the maples - I was hooked 3) This forum!! The picture gallery is an amazing resource. At just a year and a half into any sort of gardening, I still am very much a beginner, but those with more knowledge have been so helpful and patient with my questions. 4) Mountain maples website. Nancys articles made the process seems much less formidable. The last time I checked it is still up, so read, read, read if you haven't 5) Sam at eastfork - She has sent me some beautiful trees at very reasonable prices.
