thanks for the reply gardengal48, yeah I stuffed up the photos on my second post..still trying to figure how to post the photos rather than the link. I'm glad to hear the that rain should not cause any problems. I'm pretty happy with the soil mix, as I mixed compost bark and other organic matter, potting soil and akadama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akadama). from what I gather looking at other maple pictures, it does look like inaba shidare, though on the tag simply says aka (red) shidare momiji. the graft is low on the tree, and since it will stay potted, I am hoping it does not grow too tall and wide. I will prune to keep in shape every winter and train it a little. as I mentioned in my earlier post, considering the mistake of 2 time repotting within 2 weeks , it is doing quite well with new leaf's budding out. the balcony see's southern sun from early morning until around 3 so I have ordered a large parasol, which should give it shade from noon onwards. luckily the weather will be cloudy for the next few days so hopefully it should arrive before any harsh sunny days. when I first received it I had it under sun for a couple of days and it did change color quite fast, but also the new tender leaves got a little dry and scrunchy. I am hoping after this summer the tree will adjust to the location and the sun better. quite new to raising JM, though living in Japan I am surrounded by them everywhere in our neighborhood and quite enjoy momijigari. already planning my next momiji, hopefully I can find a Acer shirasawanum Aureum somewhere..it's going to be a bit though to squeeze in another maple in our balcony but I'm hopeful..!

I just read that this has been the third driest year for AZ since they started record keeping. Not sure if they meant all of AZ or just the Tucson area, since they were talking about the fires near Sierra Vista, but it has been really dry. It hasn't rained in about 100 days or more. That was just a tiny sprinkle where we are. I'm so ready for a big gully washer, although it may bring awful flooding to the areas that have been devastated already by fires. Only 2-3 more weeks until the monsoons! And only three months and I can plant cooler weather stuff. Woo Hoo!

Wow! It's so full of blooms! Looks wonderful. Mark