Are these cuttings, air layers?
Good to know. This is what i'm looking for. I may be in touch.
They show up on the facebook auctions sites every so often (if you are a facebook user). There's a member named Martin Sweeney (I think that's the spelling, he's a member here too but doesn't post much) who often sells rooted arakawa cuttings, I have 3 from him that came with nice roots and are developing nicely several years later. They were small, though, roughly pencil-sized when they arrived. I don't see larger stock very often, more developed trees get expensive quickly.
Yes, probably on 99cent because they are relatively cheap/stock material. Have you tried to join that group and not gotten a response?
I do have a little experience with Maplestone Ornamentals. I bought 4 Japanese maples from them this past summer (Arakawa, Katsura, Autumn Moon, and Fireglow). They did a decent job of packing the trees. Nursery pots were wrapped in plastic to keep the soil in place and moist enough to keep the trees alive. They were a bit on the dry side when they arrived, but considering how hot it was outside at the time that was not unexpected. Bamboo sticks were stuck in the pots to keep them positioned properly in the boxes so as to minimize breaking branches during shipping. I immediately repotted mine into Boon’s mix when they arrived, shaking off loose soil first but not doing any significant root work. They’ve recovered well and are looking healthy thus far. All 4 were grafts. The grafts are a bit higher than I would prefer, but my plan to deal with that is to air layer them. Fall color on the Arakawa was a gorgeous crimson. Overall, I’m happy with the purchase and would buy from them again.
I would check Nature's Way outside Harrisburg. And there is a place called Riverview between Lancaster and reading.
Riverview I will have to check out. I didn’t see any at natures way this past spring but could have missed it
I’m planning to air layer all 4 of the Japanese maples that I bought. The layer on the Arakawa will definitely be above the graft because, as you noted, the rough bark is distinctive. The others will either be layered above the graft or just below it, depending on how noticeable the graft is likely to be when the tree is mature vs. how healthy the particular cultivar is likely to be on its own roots in comparison to wild type rootstock.
That’s why I said they’ll be “layered above the graft or just below it”. The rootstock is ordinary Acer palmatum, which can definitely be layered even if one of the cultivars can’t be layered.
