Acer oliverianum and Acer rubrum var. drummondii

[evmibo]

Does anyone have any experience with either of these? I want to experiment with them a bit and see how they respond to bonsai in my location. I already have Acer rubrum, but not drummondii variety. After some reading, I suspect this is the small leaf, better for bonsai variety people that is mentioned from time to time. The Acer oliverianum or Oliver's maple is an experiment to see if I can grow something even more similar to a palmatum. It is said to have more tolerances to heat, although I'm unsure if a southwest florida winter will be cold enough for it.

 

[Poink88]

As mentioned on the other thread (though not on your list)...I am growing trident and looks like it is growing fine. BTW, other folks here who have been doing bonsai for years have trident as well so it can take heat (just not direct sunlight) but our winter maybe a bit colder than yours.

Good luck finding a suited maple to your area.

 

[evmibo]

Yup, winter is the biggest concern, or lack of it down here. The coldest night temp this past winter (if I remeber correctly) was in the mid to high 30's with ~45-60 in the day). I'll probably still give trident a shot. Would really like to see what Bnut has to say first.

 

[jkd2572]

If you have a garage fridge you could stick the tree in it. I would experiment with a cheap tree for a couple of years first. Maybe a cheap dorm fridge.

 

[jk_lewis]

The only A. rubrum I know of with small (1.5 inch, or so) leaves is var. trilobum, which grows in a very narrow range in Northernmost Florida and southernmost Georgia (and Alabama??). It is better for bonsai than the generic A. rubrum, but still has the problem of long petioles and the difficulty with internode distance.

Until you posted I'd never heard of A. oliveranium.

AFIK all A. rubrum need winter cold.

 

[fviljoen963]

Bumping this thread to hear if you succeeded with A. oliverianum? Ive seen it in a nursery and it certainly looks more robust. Palmatum is useless as it burns to a crisp, our heat is just too much. Even tridents have to be protected in most cases

 

[evmibo]

Hey there, sorry for the delayed response - missed this one. Unfortunately my seedlings dried out that spring and I haven't gotten around to trying another round. If I can find some seedlings online I might give them a shot again.