Last night my boyfriend and I took a Japanese Maple from our friend's house since they weren't caring for it. As you can see, it has no leaves. I read a little bit about the Japanese Maple and it says that they lose their leaves in the fall, and then in spring they appear again, but if they don't appear, it's likely the winter froze the seeds (or something along those lines?) and it won't bloom again until next spring.

I also read that in order to see if it's still alive, cut the suspected dead branch and if it's green it's likely to recover but if it's tan or dry, it's dead. I cut one small branch on the top off and a few fatter ones, and it was clearly dead.

Is there ANY hope in saving it? I don't know how long my friends had it, I honestly have never seen it before over there so I was surprised.

There are a couple ways to tell if a woody plant is alive. One is by 'snapping' a branch. A dead branch will break off but a live branch will bend.

The second is the scratch test. Scratch the bark with your fingernail. If it doesn't scratch (haed as a rock) its dead. If it scratches and the underlying tissue is brown, its dead. If the underlying tissue is green its still alive.

Good lucK!

I would keep cutting it until you find live green wood. If it's all brown and dead looking, it's a goner. I hope you can find some green wood. If so, just keep it watered but not overwatered and watch it carefully. I wouldn't repot it or feed it right now even if you find live wood.

DaisyI said:There are a couple ways to tell if a woody plant is alive. One is by 'snapping' a branch. A dead branch will break off but a live branch will bend.

The second is the scratch test. Scratch the bark with your fingernail. If it doesn't scratch (haed as a rock) its dead. If it scratches and the underlying tissue is brown, its dead. If the underlying tissue is green its still alive.

Good lucK!

It's DEFINITELY dead Ah, wish I had gotten her sooner!

plantmanager said:I would keep cutting it until you find live green wood. If it's all brown and dead looking, it's a goner. I hope you can find some green wood. If so, just keep it watered but not overwatered and watch it carefully. I wouldn't repot it or feed it right now even if you find live wood.

She's definitely a goner, I'm bummed!

I have found Japanese maples to be VERY resilient. If this were my project, I'd move it to a shaded spot, out of the wind but with good air circulation, and keep it well watered. I would not prune it. Just let it be. If there are still viable parts, the tree will eventually start putting out little green shoots, usually along the main trunk and larger branches, but sometimes at the twig ends. You just never know. Once you've figured out which parts are alive and which are truly dead, then I'd cut out the dead parts. Mulch it well over winter and see what happens next spring. Good luck.

Make sure to do the scrape/scratch test very low on the tree. Not just the branches. Then you will know.

😀

Mindi