Maple 04
Japanese Maple [Acer palmatum]
Broom?  Informal Upright

FEBRUARY 23, 2024. Oh what a change! I never got around to binding up the new growth last year (too busy with the landscape stuff, I guess) and just let the thing grow wild all year. Dug it up Monday and put it in a pot. It’s hard to believe how different the tree is now, and what a different profile I have to deal with. It’s nuts. Anyway, It’s a challenge. I still have to guy wire a couple of overgrown branches down to make things believable, and the new apex gets to run wild a couple more years. Sculpture with living materials is fun! It’s in a deeper pot, so I’m hoping to get a lot of growth this year too.

APRIL 1, 2023. this one is growing really well in the ground. I need to go out this week and bind up the new growth a little to I get the broom profile I’m looking for.

April 7, 2022

October 30, 2022. This one had a fairly good year, but I’m looking for a little more growth on it before really trying to refine the design. So it’s back in the ground for a year. I planted it around the Hawthorn from Cook Hill on the west side of the back porch; there are three other little maple there as well. Those other three are from the dissolved forest (Maple 09). I want to see more vertical growth this year, and that will mean doing some wiring before the growth really starts. I do wonder how that will go. With any luck I’ll have a more linear profile/silhouette and a slightly thicker trunk. Confession: If I had remembered a post years ago called “I’m Going to Make Brooms.” I could have saved a few years trouble with this one had I remembered that!

March 18, 2022. I repotted this one in 2021, and it didn’t do very well at all. I put it in the Byron Myrick orangish oval I got a few years ago, and I used some Brussels potting mix. I really didn’t like it very much. The pot was also way too big after the other pots the tree had been in. So this year I put it back in the little Eli Akins pot. I think it looks better, and the potting mix ought to help it grow this year. I’m going to keep my hands off it for at least the next six weeks. Really. I am.

2020. February 17. I didn’t repot this one at first last year, but eventually I did take it out of the little Eli Akins pot and give it a little more room to grow. I used the unglazed rectangle from the place in Chattanooga. The tree grew well, I think. At least it had a lot of fully grown roots swirling around the pot when I worked on it today. I’ll wait until it’s in full leaf to make a photo. It’s interesting that I had tried a few different fronts, but finally decided to pot it back in the same position it was in two years ago. And I didn’t remember that “front” at all.

At some point, this one was intended to be the start of some sort of upright design, but now it’s definitely going to be a broom. This is a sketch of what I think will happen in a couple of growth cycles. It’ll be taller than 8″, but it will still be a cute tree.

2018. February 21. I trimmed this one a bit and stuck it in the little Eli Akins round pot. I’m going to keep it small and shoot for about 6″ max height after a couple more years of branching and ramification.

2017. March. Gift from Jane McKenzie. Cute little thing in a blue pot.