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On A Limb / September 2006
From Bonsai to Backgrounds
There is such variation in the size, habit, texture, and color of Japanese maples, a garden filled only with the relatively small trees would still have great variety.
What is commonly called ‘Japanese maple’ are the cultivated varieties of Acer palmatum and its close relatives. There are over 1000 cultivated varieties (cultivars) displaying differing heights, characteristics, leaf shape and color, texture, and fall coloration. There are cultivars suitable for sun, shade, container growing, and bonsai.
Japanese maples are native to China and Japan but grow well in US zones 5-8. Small enough to fit into most gardens, although they cannot be grown as houseplants, they will thrive in a pot on a patio. In some cases, a single tree turns one color in spring, another in summer, and another in fall. Some even have winter interest when they lose their leaves. Different trees thrive in different exposures and even two of the same species, grown in the front yard and the back, may vary in appearance.
Japanese maples can grow ten to fifteen feet tall if not trimmed. Although relatively slow-growing, Japanese maples may reach 2/3 of their height fairly quickly. They like light dappled shade and evenly moist, well drained, fertile soil. They should be protected from drying winds.
Typically, their simple leaves with 5 to 9 lobes are green during summer but yellow, bronze, purple to red for fall color. They flower, with very small red to purple flowers.
They may vary considerably in leaf shape from the ‘typical’ Maple leaf, to deeply cut ‘Lace leaf’ varieties. Foliage ranges from light green to deep burgundy. There are low growing, dwarf weeping varieties and twenty foot tall shade trees. Although Japanese maples look delicate, they are hardy, durable trees and seldom damaged by insects or pollutants.
Dwarf varieties can be easily and successfully grown in large containers or planters, provided there is good drainage.
Japanese maples should be planted in the spring after the danger of frost has passed. The trees have a tendency to leaf out very early, making them susceptible to spring frosts and the weight of new foliage sometimes causes the branch to droop to the ground.
Whether very small or quite large, Japanese maples adapt well to pruning and are easily thinned or sculpted to accentuate their graceful shape or control their size.
It is possible to propagate them from seed, but the seedlings will likely be a hybrid, and may not duplicate the parent plant’s coloration, or growing structure. Seedlings don’t necessarily look like their parent tree. A significant minority will differ from the parent in color, leaf shape, habit, vigor, or other characteristics.
Japanese growers discovered this variability hundreds of years ago, and began selecting and propagating the most interesting seedlings by grafting. Propagation of Japanese maples is almost always by grafting. New cultivars are constantly being discovered and introduced. The names reflect a distinctly colorful appreciation-EverRed, Fireglow, Sherwood Flame, Moonfire, Garnet, Red Dragon.
Descriptions, even with pictures, are often inadequate for Japanese maples, because the trees change so much through the season. Cultivars like ‘Shindeshojo’ ‘Beni Maiko’, and ‘Corallinum’ have extremely showy bright pink new growth, making them as eye-catching as flowering cherry trees. The color fades to reds and olive greens through summer, and flares scarlet in the fall.
Leaves of cultivars like ‘Peaches and Cream’ and the ‘Ghost’ series, start very light green, then develop red or purple overlays and edging. Variegated forms like ‘Floating Clouds’ start out entirely green and become almost all white during hot months. Colors are also influenced by the amount of sunlight, moisture levels, and fertilization or soil type.
Although no one can be sure the Japanese maple they buy will always look like the picture on the label, they can be sure it will be a beautiful, interesting tree for many years. PL
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