Posted by
jathton (Oklahoma City, OK - Zone 7a) on Jul 5, 2020 3:58 PM concerning plant:
Michael Dirr put it accurately and beautifully when he said, "True aristocrats are rare among people and trees, but Japanese Maple is in the first order. It is difficult to imagine a garden that could not benefit from one of the many forms of Acer palmatum." Dr. Carl Whitcomb added the one caveat necessary when purchasing a Japanese Maple cultivar for their garden. He said, "One of the most spectacular of the small trees where it can be grown."
Central Oklahoma gardens containing a Japanese Maple were incredibly rare until the late 1980's… the majority of gardeners believing this small tree simply could not handle the growing conditions here. Attitudes, however, can change and by the 1990's several local nurseries were carrying a few varieties in their inventories.
In those and subsequent years we learned that many varieties of Japanese Maple could grow and thrive here as long as that caveat was respected. Out here, on the southern Great Plains, this caveat meant: rich, friable, well-drained soil… protection from the summer sun from noon to 4PM… and the willingness to water during periods of drought.
It also meant paying close attention to the cultivar you selected for your garden. Over a 20 year period we learned the following varieties performed better than others in Oklahoma City and surrounding areas: Butterfly, Fireglow, Shaina, Red Emperor, Tamuke Yama, Sango Kaku, Crimson Queen, Bloodgood, Sharp's Pygmy, Shishigashira, Orido Nishiki, Ever Red, Viridis and Seiryu.
Posted by
ILPARW (southeast Pennsylvania - Zone 6b) on Dec 18, 2018 4:14 PM concerning plant:
The mother species of the Japanese Maple is always green in foliage, except for a bright red autumn color. In the 1980's & 1990's I had seen fewer than ten specimens in the Chicago, Illinois area, as the green mother species and the regular red-leaved variety were border-line hardy there in Zone 5a. I had one neighbour in the 1970's who had a regular red-leaved small specimen sheltered as much as possible in his backyard, but a really cold night of about 25 below zero killed it. I think more maples are being planted now in Chicagoland because the winters don't get the minimum cold they used to get of around 20 below zero. However, the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area is loaded with many Japanese Maples in Zone 6b. It seems like one in ten homeowners has one of the regular red-leaved variety of Acer palmatum atropurpureum right in front of the house. Any green-foliaged straight species is much less common. Some of my neighbours have found the seedlings of the red-leaved variety growing in borders in their yards and they have transplanted them and waited about 20 years for the saplings to become an official mature tree of about 15 feet high. Several larger trees died in the neighbourhood from drought in the mid-2000's, but there are still lots of them. I'd like to see more variety of ornamental trees in the Philly area besides just Japanese Maple, Flowering Dogwood, and Japanese Flowering Cherries.