Nut
There is really no way of knowing beforehand how closely the seedlings will resemble the parent. Remember, the mother tree is only half the equation. If the the tree is self pollinated, the seedlings MAY resemble the parent closely, but they also may not. There is one seedling strain of Acer palmatum (the name escapes me) that is notorious for the variety of shapes, sizes, and colors of the offspring. Virtually no two are alike.
The real danger here is that somewhere along the line someone may forget that the offspring are seedlings and begin to call them by the cultivar names when they are not cultivars
although they may look like it. This may not sound like a big deal, but if you are paying a premium for a grafted Japanese maple, don't you want to be sure that it really is the cultivar that is advertised? So, bottom line, be very careful what you call these seedlings and how you label them, so they can be clearly differentiated from the cultivar parent.
I would be interested in your's and Sandcounty's results since my experience with buying Japanese maple seed has been miserable. Usually the seed has been overly dried which induces a deep germination inhibitor that is often impossible to break. I have spent literally hundreds of dollars on JM seed with virtually no germination. I only begin having success when I started collecting my own seed in the fall just as ripens and pre treating it immediately. Seed treated this way results in a quite high germination rate. So, don't be shy about telling us, people need to know this.
Brent
EvergreenGardenworks.com
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