Maple 01
Japanese Maple [Acer palmatum]
Very informal upright

FEBRUARY 23, 2024. No repot for this one, but I did start a couple of grafts for new branches: one at the first big bend in the trunk, one above the cluster of branches at the bend there. Time will tell if this worked. Even if it did it will take years for the new first branch to grow enough in diameter to look like it belongs there. C’est la vie, I guess. Photo will wait until mid summer, when I’ll know something about the grafts.

MARCH 19, 2023. repotted in the last two weeks, but not substantially changed otherwise. I’m even more committed to wanting to graft a branch at the bend between the lower and upper foliage sections. That’s all I have to say at this point.

September 19,2022. So now I’m back to a previous thought: Should I put this one in the ground, tilt it crazy to the left, lop of the top and let it grow like a funky off-center broom/multi-trunk? I’ve moved toward preferring the trunk tilted to the left a little, so it wouldn’t be too much of a change. And if I get some good growth next year I could thread graft a new first branch. I could go wild. UPDATE: October 31. I’ve decided to keep it like it is, if I get a strong new growth I could graft a new branch not at the bottom but in the big obnoxious gap. That would be the best thing to do overall.

September 19, 2022

March 15, 2022. the Ides of March, if I remember correctly. This is another example of how careless I’ve been in keeping notes on my trees. I have a lot of characteristics that should be improved, but this one is moving higher up the list. Quick catch-up: The tree survived the move to the new house in 2020, it was repotted in 2021, it grew OK last year but didn’t make much progress because there was too much sun on it (crispy leaves), and I considered throwing it away — again. It won’t be repotted this year, but I’ve trimmed it up a little and put some guy wires on. The skeleton looks better, leaves are showing some, and we’ll see what happens this year. I feel a little committed to this one because it’s my one and only air layer and it came from KC’s house in Hoover. That tree was gorgeous, but I’m afraid this one will always be a runt. It’s also my longest surviving tree, so there’s that making me want to keep it around. I’ll get a photo at some point, maybe soon. UPDATE: September 19. Finally got a new photo.

February 27, 2020. Repotted today. The poor thing had lived in the box for two years, but it grew a lot considering there was practically no organic material in the soil mix. I put it in one of the new large plastic grow pots (20″ or so wide) and used a mix ofd recycled aggregates and new regular old potting soil. I hope to get enough growth to just let it go wild. I’ll do the Walter Pall thing with it and see what happens. I exposed more of the roots this time, since I never got around to working on starting some new ones. The approach graft I tried last year didn’t take, and I’ve decided not to try that again. It’ll just have to be crazy looking tree that’ll never be in a show. But I’ll like it anyway. 🙂 Photo when it’s in full leaf. UPDATE April 11, 2020: Here’s the photo from yesterday. I did cut back the longer growth after I made the photos. I guess that’s the first Walter Pall job for the year. It’s so early I’m sure to have another spring whack at it.

October 18, 2018. I could learn some day, I’m sure, but until that day, I’ll still go on getting discouraged every time something goes wrong. This tree will be fine some day, even though I broke that branch off in the spring. It’ll survive and so will I. It actually looks pretty good now that it’s full of a season’s growth, and I have two things in mind to do in the spring to make it even better. First of all, I’ve learned a lot about growing new roots, so I’m going to work on a full circle of new roots around the flare of the original air layer. That’s pretty much necessary. Secondly, I’m considering an approach layer of one of the new whips to replace the first branch. I need to whack that ugly big thing off and start over, so I will.

May 3, 2018. Front

May 3, 2018. I’m afraid I could be beating a dead horse with this one. Breaking off the first branch has made me think this one is a lost cause. It could go in the ground next year.

2018. March 14. DAMMIT. I brought trees with tender growth inside for a predicted freeze tonight, and I broke off the first branch and the new growing tip of this one in the process. Damn, damn, damn.

2018. February. I moved the tree into a shallow box in good bonsai soil. I had thought of trying some root grafts on the back side to make up for the crazy root situation, but I just carved the funny looking depression and shelf on that side down a bit. We’ll see how it goes this year. I’m going to work on the top and see how growing branches works out.

In 2017 the only maples I had left were the ones in the garden. Either my care was woefully inadequate in 2016 or a fungus attacked all the trees under the pink dogwood. So I dug this one up, and though there was a nice flair at the base, that flair was only on one side. And so were the roots. I put it in another grow pot anyway. It grew well in the spring, and I managed to keep it alive until fall.

In 2015 I tried to pot the thing up, putting it in a little plastic pot on a slant because of the roots. That wasn’t all that successful, and you can see from this photo that the main part of the original branch had died. It would never go anywhere. I let it grow a while and decided I hated it, even though it was growing really well. So I scarred the thing up a lot and planted it back in the garden, at a better angle. I cut it back some in 2016, but let it keep growing in the garden to grow new roots.

This tree started as an air layer from the Japanese Maple in front of KC’s dining room window in their house on Mill Run in Hoover. I loved the tree and started two air layers in 2013. This one survived, but it wasn’t easy! It had only a few roots on one side when I separated it, but I brought it home and stuck it in the garden.ery informal upright