Kind of a surprising conclusion. My experience is that winter cold and dry desiccating winds most commonly do in maples. Japanese maple leaves will sometimes toast in the sun, but it rarely is fatal. In zone 6, I think you likely must afford good protection from wind and sun in the wintertime and that the cold more likely killed your veridis.
Nevertheless, if want something for bonsai or a more upright acer palmatum 'sieryu' is worth considering - green dissectum, but smaller leaves. It also has good fall color. Personally I would take sieryu any day over veridis.
The best orange fall color, IMHO is shishigashira (Lion's mane). It is green and has a rather unique growth habit and very different from veridis. It is also good for bonsai.
If you are looking to grow a huge land covering dissectum with orange fall color, acer shirasawanum 'green cascade' is the king; very ill suited to bonsai cultivation, however.
But truth be known, my favorite japanese maple is the one that happens to be in front of me. There is a seemingly endless variety of colors. leave sizes and shapes, and growth habits. I've got Orange Dream, Shishigashra, Higasayama, shindeshojo, aka shigatatsu sawa, tsukushigata, ukiguomo, Okushimo, Green Cascade, and several nameless red laceleafs in my landscape as well as a few generic green acer palmatum strictly for bonsai. I also have a Hogyoku and a Hiname Nishiki potted as 'patio trees'. I have had two acer shirasawanum 'Golden Full Moon', a sieryu, a koto no ito, a bene hime and a crimson king that died from various causes (mostly my mistakes). If I had the room and the time, I'd get another of the ones that have died in my hands and also add some other dwarf cultivars for bonsai use. But alas there are limits to one's available space.
Enjoy your veridis.
Meanwhile, a copy of '
the Vertree's Book' might be of interest to you
Hi Osoyoung! The one in front of me
Nice, I like it. You certainly enumerated quite a few in your possession and in different settings.
You could be right about the cold for a particular species (I don't have that book yet) but honestly, I've seen a few of these Viridis in landscapes about locally.
So in ground as was mine, should handle -20ºF for a night since we had -18 once 2 years ago here. In 77-'78 Winter, the Ohio River froze over here too.
I might plead to differ, but my knowledge is so limited on maples, but here's why...on the same side of the house are 2 red dissectums
of unknown cultivars that do ok against the house on the most brutal and unprotected side/location I have to offer being the front of the house.
One maybe 10 feet from the Viridis that died.
This is the side my front porch is on as well, and where the majority of my bonsai rest 3 seasons. I can only assume it is the heat, and the roots weren't
watered well enough to keep up. Not dry I don't think, but I left too much to Mother Nature and if a tree could talk (I believe they do amongst themselves)
SHE would have told me she needed more shade from the afternoon/evening Sun. There is nothing masculine about Viridis.
I'm taking this heat issue seriously because I'm worried about 2 maples that will not be under the canopy of the aspen I killed intentionally,
and is why I bought one of the crabapple trees I did this weekend which may help the Japonicum Otaki but a little.
Here's one more scenario that may lend a reason, but I doubt it...
When I got the Viridis 5+ feet tall, the root ball had termites.
The local county extension agent said to emerge and soak/drown the root ball in water, be it in a bag or wheelbarrow or tub for a few hours
to drown the termites. It's been so long I forget how long I drowned the rootball, but perhaps that got the tree off to a poor start and it never fully
recovered, though it did show well for 2 years thereafter. After that, the decline was steady and obvious. The tree was B&B in a wooden grow box underneath
the biggest Hemlock I've ever seen at the nursery and in full Autumn splendour. I had to have this tree...termites or not.
