Hartinez
Masterpiece
Sup nuts?!?! Here is an Amur Maple (acer ginnala) that I picked up from a local nursery on clearance this last fall. Ive had a few Japanese maple, but have had no luck with my very hot dry environment here in Albuquerque. A few of my fellow club buds have an Acer Ginnala and they are healthy and look great. Needless to say, when I found this guy for $25 I had to try. It wintered over just fine and begin to break bud about 4 weeks ago. In the last 2 weeks I drastically pruned both the trunk line and the roots. In searching for the nebari, to my delight, I found a wonderful flare of relatively radiating roots. I raked and washed the roots as much as possible careful to leave quite a bit of feeder roots considering the amount I had cut away already. I potted it up in an extra oversized clay container I had in a 50% pumice, 25% lava, 15% sifted compost and 10% bark chips. Then I waited. To be honest I didn't entirely expect success considering my history with Japanese maple. To my excitement though, buds popped everywhere. I went through and toothbrushes and cut away tangled surface roots today, further exposing what I feel is going to be a stellar nebari with still of years of work to be done. The buds are all in very advantageous positions though they are all growing upward. Once the branches harden off enough, I'm going to wire them down and then leave it to grow!
At this point I only have before and after shots with no process photos. Ive decided however, to start documenting the process here as Ive seen several other masterpiece members with great Ginnala. I believe Mach is one who has an excellent Ginnala. Ive read people have had issues with dieback so I will keep my work slow and steady (though I did a lot of work initially). Any thoughts? let me have it!!
At this point I only have before and after shots with no process photos. Ive decided however, to start documenting the process here as Ive seen several other masterpiece members with great Ginnala. I believe Mach is one who has an excellent Ginnala. Ive read people have had issues with dieback so I will keep my work slow and steady (though I did a lot of work initially). Any thoughts? let me have it!!