First Yamadori

[Haines' Trees]

Hey all! So I’ve got a small maple growing in my backyard that is probably a few years old. My choices are either A) cut it down since it’s growing up along a fence, or B) collect it and try and make something of it.


Not the most ideal specimen, not even sure exactly what kind it is, but I figure if my choices are cut it down or learn something, I might as well learn something right?

My first question is, did I miss my opportunity to dig it up already? If not, what’s my game plan here?

 

[ponderingsage]

If you have the ability, l would leave it to grow out to thicken the trunk. Looks like you can work around a fence like that when the time comes. I'm not sure what type of maple that is. Perhaps others will chime in.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

My guess is Acer x freemanii, the hybrid between Acer rubrum and Acer sacharrinum, the silver maple. it could be either red maple or silver maple. It looks more like silver maple than red maple. Basically, the hybrid is common in landscape and street tree plantings.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Too late to dig this year. Well you might get away with digging middle of August. Early spring is ideal.

If it were me, I would leave it in the ground, or move it to a garden bed, ground growing until the trunk is a minimum of 2 inches diameter. This type of maple is best for medium to larger bonsai, think 3 feet tall or 3 feet wide. Leaves tend to be large, and don't reduce enough. So go big to get better proportions.

Or, get an Amur maple. Acer ginnala also known as Acer tartaricum var. ginnala. Small leaves, good for any size bonsai. Totally winter hard in Chicago area just set on ground out of wind and winter sun.

 

[Haines' Trees]

The idea was to go for a larger size, to build a big box and transition it into there for a couple years before finding a nice pot for it.
I’m open to leaving it in the ground for now I suppose. I’m about to have new neighbors on the side of the property that the tree sits on, so hopefully they won’t want to mess with the fence and take the tree down in the process (not sure which property it is actually on).

Amur maples are definitely on my list of things to acquire. I was unaware of them when I purchased some Japanese maple seeds last fall, so those are what I’m working on right now, hopefully I can get a few that make it more than one year! I’ll need some to replace a couple maples in a group planting I have which contains two different types of maples . Took a class on making groups and I picked Japanese maple as my species. Now that they’re leafing out nicely, 4 of the 7 are clearly some other kind of maple and it pisses me off every time I look at it.

 

[Potawatomi13]

So where's the From the Mountain Yamadori tree?