I was perusing a local nursery today and found an Aratama, which I've been interested in for quite some time. It had a very strange looking graft union and I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I'm not even actually sure it was the actual graft union but it was in that area. The green rootstock appeared to be wrapped 3/4 of the way around with an extra portion of bark, maybe the grafted part (?), which was a browner color. This wrapped portion made an obvious bulge and looked very strange. The best example I can give is it looked sort of like a pig-in-a blanket, where you can see the hotdog portion that isn't completely covered. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, that portion of the trunk looked healthy, just strange. The Aratama was a 3 gallon size, maybe a foot tall, and fairly spindly, with some sunburned leaves. It was the only one at this particular nursery. It was selling for $49.99, but goes on sale for 40% off in a couple weeks. Just wondering if I should chance it or just find a better specimen elsewhere. Thanks for any info.
Your tree was probably bud-grafted. Not very common in the US, but a rather common form of propagation for maples in Europe. It is becoming more common here and we are also seeing some trees propagated in Europe and overseas imported here post-grafting, quarantined for a period of time, and then being resold. It is actually less expensive to by the budded trees, import them, hold them, and then resell them in some cases than it is to propagate the plant here and get it up to the same size for sale.
