We're renovating our home, which includes new landscaping and hardscaping. We're in the Bay Area, CA in USDA hardiness zone 9b. I just picked up 5 young Japanese maples: - Crimson Queen - 28" tall - Orangeola - 28" tall - Trident - 56" tall - Red Sentinel - 40" tall - Purple Ghost - 28" tall These are still small, in 1 gallon pots. Our front yard faces East and gets morning sun, our backyard gets afternoon sun facing West. In the past, we had a maple in the front yard that did well. In the back, we had a weeping Sakura that did well for many years, but eventually died. Our gardener replaced it with another Japanese maple, but it didn't survive very long - got leaf scorched at first, then died. I don't think an appropriate full-sun hardy maple was picked in that case. Here's our front yard: https://i.*******.cc/ZKLnWBF6/temp-Imagev9-Wp0-R.avif We were thinking of doing the Crimson Queen in the very front patch as it's a shorter tree that spreads out a lot, so there should be plenty of room there. That's a 15' x 40' dirt area. The main "lawn" area, about 22' x 40' lies under a very large oak tree. I've heard many things don't do well under an oak tree due to soil conditions, falling leaves/pollen, etc. The two small planter areas to the right of the sidewalk to the front door are not under the canopy of the oak. We were thinking of doing the Orangeola in the longer planter area to the right of the sidewalk, and the Red Sentinel in the planter area close to the front door. From what I've read the Red Sentinel is more columnar and doesn't get very wide, but still wondering if that area is large enough. And here's our backyard: https://i.*******.cc/FHsR3rD8/temp-Image9-GZ5ta.avif This area gets plenty of sun in the summer with the long summer hours. The weeping Sakura used to be in the larger rectangular planter bed area to the left of the pergola. We were thinking of putting the Purple Ghost there, but unsure if it'll tolerate the full sun. We were going to put the Trident maple in the upper right toward the right upper corner of the pergola. We were told it likes full sun, so it should do well everywhere. Another thought is to plant the Purple Ghost in that same area, about where the "planter bed" words are written vertically. The thought being that maybe over time the Trident can provide some sun shielding for the purple ghost later in the day. Then we'd look for another full-sun loving maple to put in the larger planter bed area. Just looking for any thoughts or advice on our plan. One final question: These maples are in one-gallon pots currently, and we won't be ready to plant them until early September, so they'll need to spend about 4 months in pots before they can go in the ground. Should I put them into larger pots and if so, will 3 gallons do for the next 4 months? We'll have to move them from our current condo to the house where they'll live long term, so I hesitate to put them into too large pots as they'll become heavy and harder to transport. Thanks everyone.
Looks like the pictures of the front yard/back yard didn't work. Trying again. Front yard: Back yard:
I can't answer your main question but just wanted to say that repotting to 3 gallon size to keep them growing well for the current growing season is a good idea. Especially for the larger ones. No need to go any bigger for that short a time, and 2 gallon might even suffice for some of the smaller ones depending upon how congested the roots are in the current pots.
Welcome @maplecap, Very nice drawings. I think in the Bay area the summers could be very hot and dry. Maybe you should put them where there's a lot of shade...
