Japanese Maples

[syscom3]

ah Citrus something that would croak at first frost in October up here, remembered my Dad picking fresh grapefruits every morn off their small spot near Phoneix years ago, man those were so sweet

sys your orchids are hot house grown ? ...what varieties ?

I have them outside on my patio. I grow the ones that work well in the coastal California climate: Laelia's and Cymbidiums.

I should post my pics of them.

For citrus: I have a lemon tree, two orange tree's, a kaffir lime tree, a grapefruit tree and a guava tree.

 

[Erich]

I had a customer years ago that actually built a greenhouse of concrete block and had at least 40 different Cymbidiums............just looking at the variety of the colors and textures was thinking how great God is, and he sure must have enjoyed creating all this stuff for Himself and us. Must say that the Orchid familie has to be one of the most unusual and vast array of flowers, scents and colors I have ever seen

yes Bill Jap Maple wood is extremely fragile and yummie .... even Bunnies love em when they are young

 

[Wurger]

I don't know much about these plants but I'm very impressed Charles.Cool pics my dear.Keep them comming.

 

[ccheese]

Gee... That's odd. Erich talks about aphids and drgondog talks about his
trees being nibbled on. My biggest problem is "Bogie" a neighbor's beagle.
If he gets into my yard he has to "water" them. I can usually tell because
the JM starts to die immediately. If I know he's been there, I will pour about
two or three gallons of water through the "band" that the tree is in, to flush
it out. If you look at the picture of the grafts, the square black containers
are called "bands". Aphids I have never seen, or black spot (which I have
heard of). Last summer's heat did more damage than anything else I have
encountered. I'll get some more pic's of the grafts up as soon as more buds open.

Charles

 

[Njaco]

Drgn, you need remote cameras to keep an eye on your herd!!

Charles and Erich, JMs seem more intricate to keep up than the rose. I had about 30 at one time - florabundas, climbing, hybrids. I always wanted a hybrid tea - smallish tight flower similar to the Queen's own. I was proud of the blues that I was able to grow. Very hard to do.

But anyway. Wish I had some property or I would take you up on a tree or two. I've always loved JMs. Maples are a pretty lot and when smallish they seem appropriate. And thanks Charles for the Wiki version. Now I know!

 

[Erich]

I had 3 J Maples in Bonsai but they grew out of the area and were squashed so to speak by Azaleas which have been removed due to too much shade and the neighbors fence built right on the property line.........

As Charles said summer heat is a killer especially if the trees are exposed from the south and west like mine, the leaves in whatever shape or form tend to get crisp very fast on the edges clear to the midrib vein where it attaches itself to the twig. many times when September rolls around it is almost too late for some branches as they start to drop their leaves due to the injury. They will produce leaves for next year though but that years leaves will not colour, just turn brown and either fall off or hang onto the next years bud formation. You have to keep the tree roots evenly moist and late afternoon shade is best but when I have a strong west facing and hit hits well over 100F for 1-2 weeks ........ well you can figure what is going to happen, there isn;t enough water you can get to them without the soil being boggy and form rot due to hot wet soil..........
and also due to the overexposure I have fought off bark beetles the last 1-2 years. seem to be getting some control by wrapping the trunk/branches that face due south with a white light weight almost cotton feel wrap. Replace it every late fall before the rains

 

[ccheese]

Erich:

Last summer was murder on some of my JM's. The majority are in pots along
the east side of the house. They only get the morning sun, there. My
Abigail Rose was about 18 inches high. It started to wilt and die, and I started
cutting back. It all stopped at about five inches ! It will take years
for it to recover. Other's, the top three - four inches died. Some of my new
seedlings just couldn't handle it and died. I probably won't know the extent
of the damage till everybody blossoms out.

Yesterday I did seven more grafts, and I think that's about it for this grafting
season. I'll put some more pic's up this weekend.

Bonsai takes too long to train, some up to 6 - 8 years. Don't have time for
that.

Charles

 

[A4K]

Very nice Charles! Thanks for posting the pictures!

 

[Erich]

Charles I have seen also J. Maples go through psychological changes due to heat and cold stress plus placement or movement from a stationary spot to another are around a property. this happened to my parents when I moved a Palmate cultivar to a protected north facing. It was two trunked and one of the trunks slowly died over 3 years all the way down to the grafted base. Well I cut that out with a very sharp Japanese pruning saw and sterilized the area/wound and my tool. the tree is still going strong off that one trunk some 15 years now.............very weird and not that uncommon

 

[ccheese]

Erich: I have had to deal with "stress" several times. The first time it
happened I was doumbfounded. Here, in the middle of summer, a JM
was dropping it's leaves. I emailed Bill, my PhD pal, and he explained that
a tree [not just a JM] will drop it's leaves as a way of protecting itself
during a stressful time. Makes sense, no leaves to feed, more moisture
for the roots !

Have you ever heard of a commercial product called "SuperThrive" ? A brown
colored liquid, mixed about 2 drops per quart of water. Water your JM's with
it and watch the results. It is NOT a fertilizer, it's a vitamin. And it's
expensive. I pay about $5.95 for a 5 ounce bottle. But it's good for
combatting transplant shock. Good stuff....

Charles

 

[Erich]

Charles yes I have heard of it, there are 2-3 types of cleansers aka vitamin supplements during transplant and times of overheating and undercooling. My large specimen Suminigashi was root torn this summer for a new sewer line but fortunate for that tree the ripping of roots was some 6 feet away from the trunk. I was in close contact with the owner of Mountain Maples and our own Oregon Greer Gardens one of the largest sellers of Jap maple Cultivars on the west coast or anywhere, they both agree that it might be good to stimulate but only very slowly so I opted not to purchase and supplant the material around the roots of the plant. we've had a great wet and cold winter here in so Oregon so the tree should do well again, I found no leaf scorch or twig/limb die-back after the roots were torn up and I filled in the zig zag trenches with fresh clean fill.........had the trenches been closer proximity to the trunk then yes I would of given it some extra TLC. the one carry over I always remember on growing and sustaining Jap maples is no over-fertilization, a very porous and acidic soil, one reason why Azales/Rhodies and Dogwoods work well in conjucntion with one another in the great NW

 

[ccheese]

Erich: I know only too well, the owners of Mountain Maples... Don and Nancy
Fiers. Spoke to Nancy quite a few times. Did you know she died a few years
ago from complications of an auto accident ? Don was taught to graft by
J.D. Vertrees. Right now M.M. is in bit of a struggle. Nancy left her share
[over half] to her daughter Trish, and Trish has left the company. Don is moving MM to another location. I have also purchased from Greer Gardens,
and another Oregon nursery, Forrest Farms. Ray Peggy Prag own Forrest
Farms, and I have purchased the majority of my trees from them. I think they are in Williams, OR. Hey man.... this is like old home week !! Even tho
I have not purchased a tree from F.F. recently, they still send me their
catalog.

Anyhow, Marcie Miller, who answers the phones at M.M. is an old and dear
friend. We have been corresponding by email for years. She owns half a
mountain in Laytonville, CA, and her house is at the 3,500 foot level. She
looks down at the clouds ! She got me hooked on SuperThrive...

Oh boy, now you got me wound up !!

I guess you've been into JM's for years, where I've only been doing them
about six or seven. But I do love them, and love to tend them

More pic's this weekend.

Charles

 

[Lucky13]

Wonderful stuff Mr C....!
I'm a sucker for those Bonsai trees....

Do you have any of those?

 

[Erich]

Charles yes Marcie is who I talked with some 15 minutes to half an hour for her/their opinion(s). Nice Bon Lucky !!

well you may flip out then not, small world by F.F. is only 15 miles if that to my north and east, and yes a ton of excellent selections of maples, just visited their on-line site. Interesting I have never of them before, they most likly are hidden away in one of the many canyons that surround Williams and southern Oregon. The are is vast with open range fields and then suddenly very steep hillsides leading right into the Siskiyou mtns. of course I have to say it's gorgeous and I am thinking drgndog would have to say the same of his beautiful Illinois Valley to my west some 25-30 miles.

and yes I have been growing, cultivating, pruning J. M's for well lets say over 25 years

 

[ccheese]

Lucky: No, I don't have any bonsai trees. Did you know it's pronounced
"bone-sai" and not banzai ? They take a long time to train, and I don't have
that kind of time left on this earth. They are very pretty and can be
expensive...

Charles

 

[ccheese]

Here is one of this years grafts. You can see how the bag is placed around
the graft, and secured with a twist tie. This makes like a small greenhouse,
with lots of humidity inside. I place these in a sand box with a heater cable
running under the sand. The sand stays about 80 degrees F.

The second pic is the whole of this years grafts, on the sandbox.

The third pic down is the Crimson Queen I have in my front yard. This is the
one I rescued from my dealership..... the one the pick-up truck backed over.
The tree is just waking after a winter's nap, so there are no leaves to be
seen. After she comes out I will take another pic for comparison. This tree
is just about four feet tall, and I would guess about eight years old.

BTW, this thread is about Japanese Maples. If you have any, feel free to
post them.

Charles

 

[lesofprimus]

Great stuff guys.... Never knew u had such a soft spot for JMs Erich.... Opens my eyes some.....

 

[Lucky13]

I have to admit that I have a soft spot for nice gardens, especially Japanese...funny.

Looking forward to more pics Mr C and others...

 

[Wurger]

You have to spend a lot of time to watch over these plants Charles.But effects are really nice.

 

[Erich]

Les after all the fatigue of those 1970's to 1980's years of life I tried to mellow out some.....gardening which has always been a passion of mine, it was ala natural' for Jap maples, Dogwoods, Azaleas/Rhodies. I have a small moss garden with a 35 foot nearly 40 footer J. Maple overhanging two monster azaleas with stepping stones and 3 different types of mosses growing

if I can wake up and get this digi camera going I'll gladly insert some pics of the Leaf gang in the yard ~ pots and in the ground. I use to have some 25 Bonsai but they are all gone due to a severe summer of heat and no-one to water.

Charles nice looking C.Q. Dissectum. remember you can go ahead and prune that baby in May if need be, this is when I clean out my big boy out front of dead wood and open it up for all to see the twisting branches for effect.