Any japanese maple lovers?

a few others
- assorted
- orange dream
- purple ghost
- orange dream
- aoyagi

Nice pics Dav! I ground planted a few myself last fall and I think only one perished..although it could still be alive but all the branches are gone and I see only a couple buds.

I really wish I could have JM where I am. They've always been incredibly fascinating to me.

I really like the Shindeshojo variety. I don't have one but they have really tiny and vibrant red leaves.

for the shindeshojo lovers

taken at House of Bonsai last week:

- Some of their Deshojo inventory
- I picked one up

togishi said:

for the shindeshojo lovers

taken at House of Bonsai last week:

View attachment 33987 - Some of their Deshojo inventory
View attachment 33986 - I picked one up

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I see some nice ones! I was at House of Bonsai last summer and got a Katsura maple myself! The amount of trees they have is amazing, I'll have to make another trip there in the future.

AboveBeyond said:

I see some nice ones! I was at House of Bonsai last summer and got a Katsura maple myself! The amount of trees they have is amazing, I'll have to make another trip there in the future.

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I think they may have actually doubled their maple inventory, I have noticed a lot more this year.

Day 2-3 are my favorite time to look at maple foliage.

Beautiful maples everyone. So since we have some japanese maple aficionados does anyone care to comment on their favorite cultivars for bonsai in particular based on leaf color, hardiness, ability to withstand container growth, internode spacing, leaf size etc. I've been thinking about acquiring a few more cultivars but would be interested in everyones feedback.

The green seedlings seem the most bulletproof but I've so far been working with Bloodgood (strong growing, longer internodes, bigger leaves), Orange Dream (my favorite so far with shorter internodes, but will burn in direct sun) , Osakazuki (good fall leaf color), Mikawa yatsubusa (just bought), a grafted cascade Toyama Nishiki (seems to burn to a crisp unless has major protection), and some horrid red dissectum no one would want.

Anyone have a arakawa?

Jason said:

Anyone have a arakawa?

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Oh yeah...traded my big one, but not before making a couple decent air layers that are fattening up in the ground right now...these are gonna be good...

Jason said:

Anyone have a arakawa?

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I just picked one up at Telperion Farms a couple weeks ago. Chris has a few in the ground, and a bunch that are getting layered right now. Once the layers are done, they're going to be awesome. I wanted to take a couple of them home, but they were still in process... that and the trailer I have is only so big .

togishi said:

I think they may have actually doubled their maple inventory, I have noticed a lot more this year.

Click to expand...

Indeed! I was just there yesterday. It looks like they are ramping up their business overall. I also noticed double the amount of workers prepping up the many grow out fields as well other tasks around the nursery. HOB has got to be easily one the largest bonsai operations in the US. One will find many varieties of trees being grown for bonsai as well as for landscape purposes.

When it comes to maples, I wish they would spend more time and care with the development of the nebaris. In most cases they tend to be rather poor, I suspect due to their high volume production. However, if one is willing to sift through the hundreds of trees available, one is bound to find a gem or two at a reasonable price in this huge, five acre nursery.

MACH5 said:

Indeed! I was just there yesterday. It looks like they are ramping their business overall. I also noticed double the amount of workers prepping up the many grow out fields as well other tasks around the nursery. HOB has got to be easily one the largest bonsai operations in the US. One will find many varieties of trees being grown for bonsai as well as for landscape purposes.

When it comes to maples, I wish they would spend more time and care with the development of the nebaris. In most cases they tend to be rather poor, I suspect due to their high volume production. However, if one is willing to sift through the hundreds of trees available, one is bound to find a gem or two at a reasonable price in this huge, five acre nursery.


View attachment 34039View attachment 34040View attachment 34041

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Definitely, a bit of time through the deshojos, katsuras, and they have cork bark they dug up also, you will find gem's I found this nice little acer buried under one of their canopies, and got a good deal on it

- acer i picked up
- cork bark's (arakawa) that they have available

togishi said:

Definitely, a bit of time through the deshojos, katsuras, and they have cork bark they dug up also, you will find gem's I found this nice little acer buried under one of their canopies, and got a good deal on it

View attachment 34043 - acer i picked up
View attachment 34044 - cork bark's (arakawa) that they have available

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Really nice pick ups togishi! You beat me to it!


These are a couple of pics of my Shishi Yatsubusa. Really pretty maple! Been grown out for possible bonsai material one day.

MACH5 said:

Really nice pick ups togishi! You beat me to it!


These are a couple of pics of my Shishi Yatsubusa. Really pretty maple! Been grown out for possible bonsai material one day.

Click to expand...

So awesome, you seriously can't beat the foliage on these trees. Mach5 and this thread has me wanting to go out and hunt for more

Jason said:

Beautiful maples everyone. So since we have some japanese maple aficionados does anyone care to comment on their favorite cultivars for bonsai in particular based on leaf color, hardiness, ability to withstand container growth, internode spacing, leaf size etc. I've been thinking about acquiring a few more cultivars but would be interested in everyones feedback.

The green seedlings seem the most bulletproof but I've so far been working with Bloodgood (strong growing, longer internodes, bigger leaves), Orange Dream (my favorite so far with shorter internodes, but will burn in direct sun) , Osakazuki (good fall leaf color), Mikawa yatsubusa (just bought), a grafted cascade Toyama Nishiki (seems to burn to a crisp unless has major protection), and some horrid red dissectum no one would want.

Anyone have a arakawa?

Click to expand...

Brent has an ibo nishiki cork bark maple available for sale on his website. I picked up a couple this spring that I'll try out. I have an arakawa seedling that I picked up off of eBay that is in the ground at the moment. Will see if it ends up corking, as seedlings are not guaranteed to have the properties of the parent plant.

Kotohime seems to be a very good cultivar for smaller bonsai (Bill V has some he is been working on for a long time). Shishigashira will probably make very good bonsai as well - small leaves with very tight growth, yet you can get pretty good caliper on them.

Other varieties that seem good for bonsai are katsura and kamagata. They seem to have similar growth habits as standard green JMs, except you have the extra color interest. I bought an Ao Kanzashi from Brent a few years ago that I've had in the ground that seems to fit in this category as well. Sango Kaku (coral bark) can probably work well also.

Cultivars that I own that I'm less certain of are Beni Maiko (great small leaves, but doesn't seem to thicken up much), Aratama (dwarf that doesn't seem to have good bonsai type of growth and development), and Seiryu (upright dissectum that seems to have long internodes and doesn't thicken well).

There is also the Seigen variety that you see in older books but is almost impossible to find in the US. I bought a small grafted cultivar off eBay last year, but I'm not sure if it indeed is the Seigen you see in the books.

Kiyohime is another cultivar that you see in bonsai that is very basally dominant if you're into that look. Jim Doyle has some at his place that are huge.

I've been halfway looking for Seigen as well...would trade a Chishio for one of similar size if anyone has one with good provenance.

Here's some newer pics with leaves more unfurled...

Few more...

This, I think, is just pain old Bloodgood. You CAN get the leaves down to size.