Adding Japanese Maples to My Woodland Grove
This season's tree-planting project continues at my Bedford, New York farm with a group of young, healthy Japanese maples.
Every year, I try to add a few interesting and rare trees to my Japanese Maple Grove. I love this area of the farm and my gardeners, outdoor grounds crew, and I have been working hard to keep it looking its best. Recently, I purchased 27 more of these remarkable trees to add to my collection. All the new specimens came from Summer Hill Nursery in Madison, Connecticut. With so many cultivated Japanese maple varieties available, one can find suitable specimens to grow beautifully in sun, shade, containers, and even bonsai. These trees provide countless variations in size, leaf shape, and color - I am looking so forward to watching them develop in this shady woodland.
Enjoy these photos.
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- These 27 young Japanese Maples were just picked up and brought back to my farm. Many of my Japanese maples are varieties of Acer palmatum – trees that have been cultivated in Japanese gardens for centuries. These will be great additions to this garden.
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- Over the years, I’ve planted hundreds of Japanese maples in this area. Japanese maples prefer dappled sun or part shade. I purposely planted them beneath larger trees such as tulip trees and other maples. The varying heights add a nice texture to the grove.
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- Some of the varieties in this group include Acer palmatum ‘Beni Shichihenge’ – a pink variegated Japanese maple. New growth emerges as a show stopping collage of red, pink, orange, cream and green and then changing to this nice cream and green. Later this fall, the color is a distinctive shade of orange. ‘Beni shichihenge’ grows as a beautiful vase shaped tree when young turning more round topped with age.
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- Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Garnet’ is a deciduous, graceful, small tree with lacy, deeply cut dark red leaves that retain their color into fall. This variety is very durable and vigorous with a pendulous, spreading growth habit.
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- Acer palmatum ‘Roseo Marginatum’ is a slow-growing, dome-shaped tree with blue-green leaves with deeply cut, often curved lobes, margined with shades of white and pink. Later this season, the foliage turns deep scarlet red.
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- ‘Green Threadleaf’ maples have smooth branches and feather-soft green foliage that cascade to the ground.
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- Acer palmatum ‘Ever Red’ is a charming dwarf tree with a delicate weeping form. The foliage holds beautiful deep red color throughout summer before dropping in fall.
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- Acer palmatum ‘Sumi Nagashi’ is an upright, bright mauve red maple. It is a hardy and vigorous grower with a bold crimson red in fall. Here one can already see the changing color.
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- This is Acer palmatum ‘Orange Dream’. In spring this tree is stunning with leaves of orange-yellow, edged in red. In summer it is a cool combination of green and red tips. And, in fall it explodes into a fire-ball of orange and umber.
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- This is ‘Emerald Lace’ Japanese maple – a fast-growing, deciduous small tree with deep emerald green, lacy foliage. ‘Emerald Lace’ features finely dissected leaves that emerge bright green in spring with red petioles that remain red throughout the season. Summer color lightens to light green with red highlights. ‘Emerald Lace’ has great fall colors that run yellow to orange and finish up with fiery red.
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- This is Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Waterfall’. It displays beautifully cascading branches with large, finely cut green leaves and golden fall color.
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- Acer palmatum ‘Shishigashira’, commonly called the lion’s head maple, is a very popular and striking cultivar. It is a slow upright grower with dense tufts of crinkled deep green foliage on each branch, looking somewhat like the mane of a lion. It also tends to be one of the latest Japanese maples to color in the fall.
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- This gorgeous specimen is Acer japonicum ‘Branford Beauty’. It shows off rich green, rounded leaves in spring and summer with seven to 11 pointed lobes sharply and irregularly toothed. This fall color is gorgeous mix of yellow and crimson.
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- Acer palmatum ‘Butterfly’ is a slow growing shrub-like variety. It features silvery white margined green leaves on densely held branches. These leaves become scarlet magenta in late fall.
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- Acer palmatum ‘Volker’s Cream’ has such interesting foliage – creamy white reticulated variegation in spring and yellow to orange color in fall. The dark veining contrasts so beautifully with the lighter leaf color.
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- Once the new trees arrive at my farm, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, positions them where they will be planted.
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- Ryan strategically places each specimen – keeping in mind the tree’s color, mature height, and spread.
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- After the trees are positioned, Domi begins digging the holes. A crucial step in growing healthy trees is to plant them at the proper depth. Planting a tree too deep can kill it. Plant it only at its flare – the bulge just above the root system where the roots begin to branch away from the trunk.
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- Once the depth of the hole is correct, the hole is amended with fertilizer. We use Roots with mycorrhizal fungi, which helps transplant survival and increases water and nutrient absorption.
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- As with all the plants and trees we plant, we always scarify the root ball. Scarifying stimulates root growth. Essentially, Pasang breaks up small portions of the root ball to loosen the roots a bit and create some beneficial injuries. This helps the plant become established more quickly in its new environment.
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- The tree is placed into the hole to gauge the necessary depth. A good rule of thumb is to plant it to the same height as it was in the pot. And then, Pasang adds a little more fertilizer to the top of the root ball.
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- Pasang then backfills, adding a little more new soil where needed. After putting a new tree into the ground, be sure to keep it slightly moist for the first year as it takes root.
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- We’re expecting a good soaking rain this weekend, so these trees will get a nice drink.
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- This grove grows more beautifully every year. Few trees are as stunning as the Japanese maple. With more than a thousand varieties and cultivars including hybrids, the iconic Japanese maple tree is among the most versatile small trees.
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