Nipped out in between showers and took a few pics this afternoon. Everything has coped well with the record heat and drought this summer. Most are still in summer colours. A couple of seed grown: This seedling has a good colour on the new growth: Acer pentaphyllum and a close up of the new growth on Beni komachi: Wou nishiki and Shaina (probably, bought without a tag many years ago) :
This Acer discolor (paxii ?) definitely needs drastic pruning and repotting : 'Orange Dream' (an air-layer) is surprisingly healthy in almost 100% shade, in its much too small light blue pot. Another one, among tens, that I'll have to repot : 'Bihoo' : it was beginning to turn to Autumn colours when the heat waves struck, so I put it back in the shade. It get the sun from say 16:30 to 18:00 :
Talking about 'Ryusen' (or 'Ryu sei'), I put this one on a bamboo stake to see if it retained the weeping habit. February 21st, Aug. 22nd and today. It seems that like on a couple of others, there's a leader going upwards and the side branches weeping : PS : of course, to be repotted in a bigger pot next spring...
Yikes! I would have potted that up in June. Or July, or August, or now! :) Maples are still putting on root, until dormancy, so it's still fine to repot, in my view. I have very good success through September, but very poor success after that. Unless it's a simple slip pot. Still I know my view isn't universally accepted... I'm still getting the last of things potted up, working on moving 30 A. sikkimense from 1 to 3 lt. I took a couple of pictures of 'Black Lace', still looking good, and staying quite dark in spite of lots of shade. I'm surprised by how well it's done, some nurseries I've spoken to really dislike this one, they consider it a big PITA. I can't say I think it's that distinguished, though.
I was wondering whether to do it now or in the spring. Anyway, if I don't mess with the roots, slip potting should be OK, so I might do it today. Wow ! ;-)
Thanks Emery for encouraging me to repot it. I had a look at the weather forecast : 9-18 next week, but 9-21/24 after. It should be ideal for "slip-potting". As you can see, the mix was mainly "akadama", with pozzolane at the bottom. The new mix is about 60% potting soil from garden center, but it looks good, 10% small pine bark, and the remaining 30% is a mix of old soil, akadama, pumice, composted pine bark, etc, that I keep in a big plastic bin. I added a little slow-release fertilizer, like I always do when I repot. I will probably remove the small shoots at the base, below the first green link. PS : I usually prefer pots that are wider than high, but I had this pot in the wild weeds and I thought it could match a weeping tree.
Strapleaf reds viewed from a similar angle minutes apart on this cloudy late summer morning. Both full sun summer exposure. 'Beni otake' 'Hubbs Red Willow' Overall blend of color in yesterday's afternoon sun...
The thing I really dislike is girdling roots. It's more of a problem with round pots (which otherwise I prefer) than square, but they do go around with square also. The square pots, which most nurseries use because the take up less area, also promote tangled roots directly under the main stem, which later can all grow together and strangle the plant as much as encircling roots. Well, that's my rant for the day! Boy, little Acers sure do love akadama. You can see that the root growth stage is still very much in progress. I did another batch of the sikkimense, some were repotted (to 1 liter) in 9/21, some in 10/21. Several of the October replanting had smaller roots, but they all looked pretty good. The one in the pic was done 10/21.
Here too, and the supplier that made a discount for us (bonsai club, large quantities) is going out of business. :-(
It's the first time I've heard of 'Ogi Tsuma Gaki'. I found on MrMaple website that it dates back to 1995 and that : "Ogi" is Japanese for fan, describing the more round habit of the leaves than the typical 'Tsuma gaki'. "Tsuma gaki" means "red fingernails" describing the spring coloration.
I've never heard of it either.. But it is listed in Yano as a 1995 introduction of Nakajima. Great pics, thanks! A few comments: - you can tell it's A. shenkanense from the cuneate (wedge shaped) leaf bases, as opposed to A. cappadocicum ssp sinicum. We have two of these planted in full sun, one of which was planted this past winter; they did really well in the heat and drought this year. (ssp. sinicum is also very heat resistant; shenkanense was previously known as A. cappadocicum ssp. sinicum var. tricaudatum.) - we don't have stachyophyllum ssp betulifolium, and I've never seen it offered. It spreads hugely by suckering and Esveld has said they'll dig some for me, but I haven't managed to get up there. ssp. stachyophyllum also did very well in the drought. - argutum is really one of my favorite maples, it's just gorgeous. But boy does it hate the heat and drought. Seems to like a lot of water. We have two planted, one has managed to keep it's leaves, but doesn't look like much. The other has lost about half, and is now putting out some weak leaves and even a few flowers. Ugh. - what a gorgeous pictum. Another favorite. - that olivaceum is amazing, it's huge! Xu 2008 has this as a synonym for elegantulum, but this plant doesn't look anything like it. It seems more like oliverianum, though the angle on the samaras (I hope you collected some?) looks a bit acute. It doesn't look like the two tries I've made at olivaceum, which I could just about believe as elegantulum, thought there were obvious differences. Edit: fix brain glitch, said caudate instead of cuneate.
I was amazed at the suckers from the stachyophyllum ssp betulifolium. I thought they were seedlings at first. I'll try to remember to get pics when I go back. This is a beautiful tree and have nice red fall color. I will also check the olivaceum tag again. I have seedlings from it and they are most likely hybrids. I'll be collecting a few seeds this year to see what pop up.
Here are a few still in the summer phase: A. calcaratum, done growing and hopefully ripening. Acer 'Berrima Bridge', a new arrival which lost it's leaves some time ago apparently, so putting out some late growth. (Not usually a desirable event). 'Pixie', still a nice red. It resisted the sun and drought very well. Acer acuminatum. Another new arrival, it broke in shipping and had to be cut back, resulting in this new growth. (also not marvelous as unlikely to make it through the winter.) This is called Acer 'Gene's Dissectum', I don't know much about it. Big leaves. Acer lobelii. Although it's in a 12l pot, I will wait a year before planting. The root is not developed enough, I don't guess. I do love this tree though, and this is a seedling which is nice. Acer aff. obtusifolium. This seeding does get planted this winter, the root is very strong. It is deciduous. The lobes are more sharply pointed than is usual for obtusifolium, and the leaves are much larger, but in other was it does resemble its parent. It's a nice plant.
Once again, thanks for posting all these species that are absent on other forums or facebook. I find Acer calcaratum particularly to my taste, I love 3-lobed maples like buergerianum, discolor, mospessulanum, etc. ;-)
I agree. I'm hoping to be able to grow it outside, as they do at Wespelaar. It's already deciduous here, but I've only let it have a little frost. And, I'm glad to share the amazing diversity of the genus; maples are among the most amazing trees there are!
Shade, half-shade or sun ? Tomorrow is "Autumn". This 'Ryusen' gets the sun in late afternoon : Acer shirasawanum 'Autumn Moon' only gets the sun 1 or 2 hours before sunset, 'Tsuma Gaki' is in almost 100% shade. I think they will need more sun next year. The picture showing very poor leaves on 'Tsuma gaki' almost never get the sun, while those that have "only" a few leaf spots get some sun in the morning : Among those that got leaf-scorch or leaf spots, those in the "hime" family didn't fare well, except 'Tama Hime' that stayed all the season on 99% shade : 'Koto Hime', top branch : 'Shishigashira' that was exposed the same, and which looks a bit similar, is in full shape, except a few tips of leaflets at the top : There's one "Hime" that stayed all season in the shade, 'Tama hime'. The rain prompted a few new leaves : And among those that still look as healthy as they should be, this 'Orange Dream' from air-layer. (I can alredy hear Emery say "Yikes!" ;0) ) OK, it needs a bigger pot :
Thanks. Photos from when I brought it from a supermaket in England, in April 2015 : acerp-ruysen 150418a | Arbres, arbustes, bonsaï et plantes
Autumn is "officialy" here, but today was perhaps like the last day of summer. Some photos from a park. First, maples next to Junipers pruned as "cloud trees". Most of them suffered from the hot summer we had, I wish I had taken my "sécateurs" to prune the dead branches. There were a couple of others, potted, but none had a tag and considering the scorched leaves, I abstained from taking pictures. There are huge conifers, bamboos, etc., but I concentrated on maples. There are hundreds of samaras on this one, but I didn't take any : Have a look at the label for this one. I dared leaving a note when I left saying there was a mistake, that it's not a "japonicum", but a palmatum (amoenum) : I also saw a bending amoenum (I suppose so), An Acer tataricum ssp ginnala, a shirasawanum (Aureum ?), a couple of buergerianum too : There is also this big red-leaf Norway maple. Those we can see are usually street trees and are pruned, this one is "naturalistic" -;-)- Others : This is not a maple, and not gandja <LOL>, but I can't remember the name : And what is this , a kind of euonymus ?... AK
Still lots of green out there, although change is going quickly now with some cold nights. Firstly Sango kaku, on 21 Sept, just before the real turn Keikan zan also from 21/9, though it looks the same today. I thought it was interesting how green the shaded branch (pic 2) has remained. Acer wilsonii, it has resisted the drought very well. The so-called "Tana" pushing out some new leaves. Tana, really? I can't believe it. A. pictum ssp mono. I find the large, shallowly lobed leaves really pretty. Speaking of pretty, 'Tsuma gaki' has decided to push some foliage. I hope it doesn't cause any damage for next year. You can see the state of some of the remaining leaves lower in the first picture. What a mess!
If they don't have it, I can send some scions. But maybe not this year, I don't think there was fresh growth anywhere. It is a great dwarf maple.
