If you order from a reputable grower such as Mountain Maples you'll get a good tree, but as to what size it is, you'll have to ask them (and it won't be inexpensive). You might be better off with one from a local nursery. Acer griseum (what you want) grow quickly.

My favorite local nurseries in OK geneally offer better grown trees for a much better price than I can usually find mail or internet ordered. Shipping is so expensive that mail order places generally only ship one gallon or smaller items. Greenwood nursery did ship me a 3 gallon potted sized and 5 feet tall Ogon Dawn Redwood tree, Once I received it, I still felt like it needed to be repotted into the next size up pot for better root development to occur before planting the tree once it goes dormant later this fall. Not to mention the leaves had stressed during shipping enough to turn completely green, instead of displaying the bright yellowish hues it should have been showing since the tree arrived no later than the final weeks of spring.

Most locally nursery grown 3 gallon items are hardened off better and have better root development. Not to mention, the locally obtained trees and shrubs are generally more acclimated to that location's climate and general growing conditions.

Since paperbark maples are not sold as clumps, it is my opinion that they especially need to be hand selected to make certain that the three or more trunks of your tree are growing in balance with each other. It is also my opinion that evem young six foot tall mulit-trunked paperbarks have not had the time to merge their roots together into a stable enough rootball. That is cetainly true if you are planting that young of a bareroot mulit-trunked paperbark maple.

In my experience and according to Dirr, Acer griseum is a slow grower. I have one that was planted in the fall of 2001 and it has grown some, but I would not call it anything but a slow grower. It was described as 1 3/4 inches, which at the same time I had a sawtooth oak described the same, and the sawtooth oak is 3 times the height and diameter of the paperbark maple. The cost was several hundred dollars for it and to have it planted.

I have only seen single stem paperbark maples. There are five growing in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden and they are all single stem and have been slow growers. It is expensive, but well worth it. There is one close to 100 years old at The Arnold Arboretum in Boston (actually it may be 100 now)However, it is not listed in their Centenarian Trees and Shrubs' tour guide. The bark was not foliating, apparently that feature will be lost in someone's life time.

Do Paperback Maples need to be "trained" to be multi-trunked? Or is this normal? Some for sale are, some are not.

I've seen some at a good local nursery, all 6 feet plus high with straight thin single trunks, and you can tell that they were topped at about 6' in the past, I assume to get them to spread out and not be so thin/tall. Is this normal? I picked out a nice one, about 8' high but it can barely cast a shadow it still rather sparse. How tall will this be in 10 years? Will it mostly just get wider?
So I guess it does make a difference in what you get, as in whether it is multi-trunked or single trunked.

You can't train a tree to be multi-trunked - it either grows that way naturally or it doesn't. Coppicing may be the exception in that coppiced or stooled trees will sometimes respond to this severe pruning treatment by producing multiple stems, but I'd not consider maples to be a good choice for this type of activity. Some growers will create the illusion of a multi-trunked or clump form tree by growing saplings together - this is pretty common with various birches - but these are really separate plants that have grown to accommodate the close growth of their fellows to create a "clump" formation.

Most maples tend to be single trunked but one can often find examples of various species that begin to branch very low to the ground so they appear multi-trunked as they mature. Acer circinatum is one that often follows this growth habit. With all the hundreds of maples that pass through my nursery, I'd have to say I've seen very few if any paperbarks that offered this growth habit.

Like many young trees, Acer grisseum will present a far different appearance in its juvenile years than it will once it matures. It does tend to be tall and scrawny with a sparse canopy but that changes as the tree becomes established and puts on a few a years. My own, planted as a 5' sapling around 10 years ago, is only now starting to look like a "real" tree and filling in to form a proper canopy. It is still taller than wide but it's coming along :-) I'd agree with both Dirr and hoseman and consider this to be a slow grower.

I was looking at some paperbark maples at two local nurseries yesterday. They range from about 5-10 feet tall.
None are exfoliating extensively. At one nursery, most of them had the initial branching quite high (I think the term is "leggy"). The canopy was kind of sparse, although the leaves were pretty. These were about $250. The other nursery had one, only around 5 foot tall, but with lower branches and a few more leaves. This was $364! Anyway, is there a certain season when the exfoliating is more prevalent? Can the tree get by on an area with about 5 hours of sun/day?

That's what I am talking about when I say they are expensive... From what I have read it needs more sun that 5hrs/day.

Well, I have fooled around with mail order trees a little.
I bought an American Hornbeam from Nature Hills, and a European Hornbeam from Forestfarm.com. Nature Hills sent me a bare stick about 1 foot in length, and really thin. Without the stake, the tree would be almost invisible. It was a flimsy bare root deal. The tree was only about $10, but shipping/handling got it to the upper 20's. Still cheap, but I have no hope now of it ever amounting to anything. Forest Farm sent a somewhat nicer 1 foot tree, full with leaves. It doesn't look like a tree, but at least it looks like a plant. I think it was around $17 for the tree, but I had to ship via air mail this time of year. Before all was said and done, the cost was close to $40. This may amount to something in ten years, I guess.
Now, I see Forest Farm charges around $57 for a paperbark maple in a two gallon pot. There will probably be a big S/H ($30), so you, with tax, you could end up paying $90+
I can't see myself paying $364 for one of these, but I think the guy likes to offer bargains after we hum and haw :)

Ok, I checked it out at Forest Farm. The required air mail charge for this time of year meant $85 shipping + a $5 "surcharge". They sold one in a 5 gallon pot for $59, but it was $149 by the time the final bill came in. I don't know how big a tree you get with the 5 dollar pot. Any ideas? Of course, I wouldn't have to pay my landscaper $25 to go get it, but savings from the $260 place don't seem enormous right now. If the tree was 5ft., it might be interesting.

Mine is amazing! Grows about 2 feet a year now.

I was given mine and at that time it was a single trunk about 10 feet tall (2001) with a very similar weak canopy. Now the thing is 18 feet tall I'd reckon with a beefy trunk to boot. When I planted, the trunk was about 1.5 inches in diameter at the base. Now... 4-5 inches across. It's a beaut!

Bark peeling like a champion -

I order from Heritage Seedlings every year. They are wholesale, but they sell in groups (for paperbark) in like 10's or something. 2-3 foot trees for about 10 bucks each. You could plant them and sell the extra's on ebay or wherever.

The best quality plants I've gotten are from Heritage. Been buying from everywhere for years.

I agree with picea right above as well.

As to the multi-trunk I disagree with gardengal. These are notoriously known to be trained as multi-trunked specimens for a shrub-effect and more peeling bark as a result at a persons eye level, etc -

Supposedly more appealing this way.

Anybody could simply pinch/cut these youngsters (when young) just like pinching a perennial flower "plant" to create more branching.

I think I'm right about the multi-trunked question.

Regards,

Dax

Crap, those are expensive!

I got my griseum from Broken Arrow here in CT 3 years ago, about 8' tall b&b for $135.

Conifers, is the Heritage Seedling a minimum of 100 of the same plant, or can you mix and match?

These are notoriously known to be trained as multi-trunked specimens for a shrub-effect and more peeling bark as a result at a persons eye level, etc -

I beg to differ. Most maples species have what is termed a decurrent growth habit - they tend not to develop a strong central leader, but develop scaffold branching relatively low on the trunk. This will ultimately result in a more rounded and evenly spreading canopy as they mature and often, depending on the location of the initial scaffold branching, in a more a shrub-like or multi-trunked appearance. But where those primary scaffold branches develop is determined by nature, not by man. You can't "paste" a scaffold branch below where it naturally occurs nor can you easily train or encourage even a sapling into generating a scaffold branch at any specific location. And often the development of very low scaffold branching brings with it its own set of problems regarding crotch angles, included growth and lack of structural integrity.

Some maple species will tend to display an excurrent growth habit - the development of a vertically growing central leader - when young, only to mature into a more spreading, decurrent habit as they age. Acer griseum typically follows this pattern, which is why you will often find them in nurseries as gawky, scrawny, narrow but somewhat tall young trees with a single clear trunk and the appearance of a central leader. It is not until they are established and have a few years on them that they begin to display a more rounded and evenly spreading canopy common to the decurrent habit. Some will display this more characteristic growth habit at a much earlier age and these are the ones that will appear as more shrub-like in form or have the appearance of multiple trunks, as they have developed lower scaffold branching.

FWIW, the appearance of the exfoliating bark can vary considerably, sometimes appearing at a very early age - we have 3' saplings at the nursery that already show evidence of this trait - and others not developing this feature until more mature. And its pretty hard to ignore regardless of growth habit or so-called "training", since it begins from the ground up. And since the presence of low scaffold branching also brings with it foliage, very low branching or the multi-trunked effect tends to obscure this effect rather than enhance it with a clear span of trunk.

Dax, if you have any sources that indicate how this training into a multi-trunked form is accomplished, I'd be very interesting in reading them, as the bulk of the lietrature - aside from coppicing practices, which are entirely separate - focuses on training how to avoid less structurally sound, multi-trunked trees rather than encouraging or somehow training to create them.

Here's a nice mature specimen; single trunk up to about 1.5m:
{{gwi:403911}}

Resin

That's really nice! Is it exfoliating much? It's hard to tell.

Are paperbark maples easily transplanted? I'm thinking of growing one of the scrawny ones the nursery has in my backyard for a couple of years, and then move it to the front when I can find room.

giboosi_alttara

You know I may have misled you on that. I buy 100 maple seedlings for grafting and also other things in groups, at times. Give em a call and see if they can help you out!

GardenGal -

I recall reading over and over again that they are trained. Maybe I was assuming to much. I'm not going to go looking for cited literature for you. Never mind please.

Thanks,

Dax

Hi Adrianmonk,
"Is it exfoliating much?"

Yep, it is; more so than many do, as the exfoliated bark has peeled off completely, instead of hanging part-on as in some other specimens I've seen. It also varies a bit with time of year how much loose bark is hanging on.

Guess it's a matter of personal taste whether one prefers them glossy smooth like this one, or all shaggy like others.

Resin

Here's mine:

{{gwi:403912}}

{{gwi:403913}}

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{{gwi:403916}}

Dax