we recently bought a 20 gallon acer palmatum viridis,brought it home and planted it only to discover a tag on the plant said waterfall. are they the same? do they have the same color change in the fall. we bought a viridis because my wife is from japan and there the viridis change to a golden red in fall. we hope that the waterfall is the same. its doing nicly here. all leafed out. can you help?
My own Waterfall shows autumn colours of yellow/gold, although it is in fairly deep shade Vertrees describes the autumn colour as brilliant golden tones suffused with crimson I have no doubt that your tree will give many years of joy .....
I have not been able to tell the difference. For what its worth my waterfall is my current favorite of my young garden (and my tree is well less than 20 gallons). Enjoy the tree!
Hi, mylesahead: I have both cultivars, two 'Viridis' and two 'Waterfall'. Both are green dissectums. The name Viridis is used actually as a "generic' or general term for green dissectums. Waterfall is one of them, but it has the 'plus' that its branches are more rounded (if not pruned) doing the effect of a waterfall. IMHO you got a plus with the waterfall because its very distinctive shape. Don't be affraid of the fall color: It is simply astounding with a mix of yellows, fiery oranges and reds. As paxy says, my Waterfalls are by far ones of my favorites. Your wife won't be dissapointed, believe me. Here are some pics examples of what a A.P. 'Waterfall' "can do" (pics 1 and 2 fall colors, pic 3 spring color):
According to Vertrees, Viridis has become sort of a generic term for green dissectums. Waterfall, in my opinion, is one of the best green dissectum varieties. So consider yourself fortunate.
Well, paxi, hard to tell, I have a lot of pictures that I began to collect from internet and other sources, just to compare and study the diferent cultivar and their changes in different seasons. At the beginning of these colection I got a lot of pics without care about the source, so for most of them I don't have the source. I just have pics classified by cultivars. Most were downloaded and others were shared by other collectors. I think if you go to google images and type the name of a cultivar you'll find what you looking for. nelran
Maybe a link to the copyrighted material would work ? More info if "copyright" is "searched" at top title bar.
I have both a 'Viridis' and a 'Waterfall', planted in close proxmity to each other in a shady area under mature oak trees. I feel that the 'Viridis' has a deeper gold color and tinges of red that the 'Waterfall' is lacking, the green coloration is very similiar. Three pictures attached illustrate the color differences. Swanny
Very nice fall colors, Swanny. I don't have pics of my dissectums with fall color, so I'm posting my own cultivars with spring color. All specimens received same amount of sun last year. Now I have moved my big Waterfall to afternoon shade, so probably I won't get same deep orange/red colors next fall. (However I like the yellow tones too). The first 4 pics are from the waterfalls, last two are for my Viridis. I noted that Viridis is very slow growing and dwarf, but anyway, I discovered that each JM cultivar has its "15 minutes of glory" each year, and that's the main difficult for me when somebody ask me to chose favorites (It seems that each one take its "turn on the walkway" to exhibit its best dress each year).
Here are some pics examples of what a A.P. 'Waterfall' "can do". Just because another entity snagged photos online of plants does not mean that we have a free license to also snag those photos and use them for anything we want other than for personal, private usage. Herein is the problem with doing that. Of the three photos that were submitted and in this particular case I think this incident can lead to this being educational for others is that: 1). one of the photos probably is Waterfall. 2). one of the photos may or may not be a Waterfall. First thought I had is that it is not a Waterfall. 3). one of the photos is clearly not a Waterfall. Okay, what does anyone do about it? Do we continue on calling all three plants as depicted in the photos Waterfall or do we try to get a consensus of what a Waterfall indeed looks like? I know my opinions mean little but this kind of thing will only get worse in time, not better. There are other green leafed dissectums that encompass the Viridis group of Maples and by the way it was an Italian nursery in more recent years that spent a lot of time sorting out of those plants gathered from a host of Maple growing locations. Two old Maples of Japan - Ao shidare and Ao washi no o have been intermittently mixed in with Viridis and Waterfall for a number of years from West Coast growers. We had a mix of Ao washi no o in our block of five gallon Viridis until we decided to pull the Ao washi no o out of that block of 300 five gallons. We ended up with five Ao washi no o. I'll let a Kobayashi son sometime, if he will do it in this forum, tell of how his father (Jiro) searched around and allover Japan trying to find that Maple when it was thought by numerous people to be extinct in Japan and elsewhere for several years. The reason I had that Maple for 24 years and the basis why there is still one in the collection is not due to the person that grafted it, it was due to the person that found some plants of it and sent them to one certain grower in the US. Jim
Please remove the photographs from these forums if they weren't taken by you or if you don't have explicit permission to use them.
Waterfall was one of my first and I have grown it since 1995. I got my first virdis in 2002 and loved it so much I got another in 05. The difference I see on mine (and of course as with all cultivars of anything you buy, most of us can only go by the label) is that Waterfall is a more rounded growth habit. Mine is like a green Garnet. Both of the virdis, to me, are more sculptural. They have grown more upright and the branches reach, and twist. I love both for different reasons. As for color, my waterfall one year was a glowing orange and simple beautiful. Of course, growing in zone 5, I don't get the colors you do in the more southern reaches because by the time they start to turn, we can get hard freezes so the window of color on Japanese maples can be short. Usually, they are both yellow. I don't know, as a gardener, there is such difficulty in determining whether or not things are labeled correctly. That's one of the great frustrations of gardening. On the plus side, they are both vigorous, great additions to a garden. Kay
