rockm
Spuds Moyogi
The thought that there hasn't been adequate experimentation with native maples is not really all that accurate. Many haven't been worked as bonsai, some have--for decades-- and there are specialized native cultivars of many developed for the landscape nursery trade. Take red maple (acer rubrum). There are a handful of good red maple bonsai around, some are forty-fifty years old. Vaughn Banting's red maple forest at the National Arb. was created in 1974 (from the "drummondii" cultivar, which has naturally small (er) leaves, but hasn't been actively cultivated for those. It just does).
Chalk maple, sugar maple and others are catalogued in Dorothy Young's 1984 book "Bonsai, the Art and Technique." Their listing includes characteristics and descriptions on how they work as bonsai. The simple fact is that there are not many examples of good North American native maple species bonsai, and not for lack of trying.
The argument that foreign species (like Amur) have somehow "naturalized" and should be considered native is wrong. Species don't change their genetics immediately (and 100 years in-country is not a lot of time) when transplanted into another country. Amur maple here is the same one genetically as those in China/Russia. FWIW, Japanese maples were introduced long before Amur, so it too, would be "naturalized" under such thinking.
I'm not trashing American species. I have mostly North American species in my collection. Yeah, SOME are great. North American maples, like MANY North American species, can be problematic, however, because they are wild and it takes a long time to develop specific genetic variants that "work" under bonsai cultivation. They simply haven't been selected for the finer growth and characteristics that similar Japanese varieties have. Asian species, and particularly Japanese species, have been developed over a very long period for garden use. Also Japanese maples and other species also evolved in a specific maritime volcanic island environment that perhaps made them more amenable to bonsai cultivation. North American species developed under a hotter, drier, more extreme continental environment that didn't produce the same results genetically.
FWIW, many tree species on the east coast of the U.S. have their closest genetic relatives in Asia, particularly China, so they may have similar capabilities that can be refined -- but since bonsai is a VERY specific use, that development probably isn't going to happen any time soon (if at all and probably not in the lifetime of anyone reading this)
I said the stuff about Japanese Maples because the OP has fallen in love with a pretty good example of an old JAPANESE MAPLE...not a bigtooth maple, or a sugar maple, or a red maple. Seems the tree "spoke" to them as loudly as some native maples speak to others. Recommending a species that doesn't really have any of the characteristics or development capabilities as a Japanese maple might not fit their bill...
Chalk maple, sugar maple and others are catalogued in Dorothy Young's 1984 book "Bonsai, the Art and Technique." Their listing includes characteristics and descriptions on how they work as bonsai. The simple fact is that there are not many examples of good North American native maple species bonsai, and not for lack of trying.
The argument that foreign species (like Amur) have somehow "naturalized" and should be considered native is wrong. Species don't change their genetics immediately (and 100 years in-country is not a lot of time) when transplanted into another country. Amur maple here is the same one genetically as those in China/Russia. FWIW, Japanese maples were introduced long before Amur, so it too, would be "naturalized" under such thinking.
I'm not trashing American species. I have mostly North American species in my collection. Yeah, SOME are great. North American maples, like MANY North American species, can be problematic, however, because they are wild and it takes a long time to develop specific genetic variants that "work" under bonsai cultivation. They simply haven't been selected for the finer growth and characteristics that similar Japanese varieties have. Asian species, and particularly Japanese species, have been developed over a very long period for garden use. Also Japanese maples and other species also evolved in a specific maritime volcanic island environment that perhaps made them more amenable to bonsai cultivation. North American species developed under a hotter, drier, more extreme continental environment that didn't produce the same results genetically.
FWIW, many tree species on the east coast of the U.S. have their closest genetic relatives in Asia, particularly China, so they may have similar capabilities that can be refined -- but since bonsai is a VERY specific use, that development probably isn't going to happen any time soon (if at all and probably not in the lifetime of anyone reading this)
I said the stuff about Japanese Maples because the OP has fallen in love with a pretty good example of an old JAPANESE MAPLE...not a bigtooth maple, or a sugar maple, or a red maple. Seems the tree "spoke" to them as loudly as some native maples speak to others. Recommending a species that doesn't really have any of the characteristics or development capabilities as a Japanese maple might not fit their bill...