Last year my 4-foot-high Orido nishiki emerged in spring with a splash of pink, white, and green varietated leaves. This year about 90% of the leaves are pure green. The tree seems very healthy; is now 5 feet high and doing very well. Should I worry, or is it just that some years behave differently than others? (BTW, my Butterfly is showing less variegation and less pink this spring than last year as well.) Could it be due to the wet and warm winter/early spring we had?
I woudn't worry too much. My Asahi zuru leafed out with nealy all green leaves with just a couple leaves with curled pink lobes, I wouldn't even recoginze it without its tag. I have a couple recticulated maples that have new spring growth a far cry from what I saw last season. So with that said, we can readily be confused by these plants. I think sunlight and nutrient conditions play a big role, but the onset of the previous winter, the onset of spring and mositure conditions probably all play a role. I am seeing more pink and white in my Butteryfly this year than I have in the past two years, so I suppose we can't expect the same things from season to season. Color, leaf shape and size can all be variable from year to year. Some trees are more stable than others. MJH
Not much variegation showing yet on most of my 'Oridono nishiki's either. Will keep you informed if any improvement occurs.
Hi guys, Mine also are not showing much. My 'Kara su gawa', 'Oridon Nishiki', and 'Asahi Zuru' not showing much color. My Butterfly has a good bit of cream and some pink, but not like last year. My 'Higa sa yama' really impressed me though. All of the Shigatsu types look good. I dont have much experience logged past last year, so just taking in the data points. As said earlier, there normal is quite variable.
Here are a couple of shots of atypical growth so far this spring. All photos are from today, 4/19/05. The Asahi zuru will carry that name tentatively as I have not had it long enough to be sure. The other is Geisha and has a particular oldwood branch that won't seem to settle down. The leaves on Asahi zuru are likely lacking veriegation and oversized as a result of repotting last fall into fresh planting mix. The summer growth on it was vidid pink and the white/green veriegation was pretty well distributed when I got the plant last fall. I'll have to see what happens.
This is exactly what I was wondering about my 5 foot 'oridono nishiki' also. Last spring it was heavily variegated; this year you need to get right on top of to see anything but green. Sounds like this isn't a serious problem, though. Other than that it looks very healthy.
