Red Lace weeping japanese maple dying in middle?? ugh :/
Lisa
7 years ago
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Japanese Maple or ?? for perennial bed
Comments (18)You can use a purple smokebush with perennials very easily. I use mine as a cutback shrub, keeping it quite low, but have sometimes left the shrub uncut in the spring and it will get about 6-8 foot tall those seasons. If left unpruned to grow as a tree it gets about 12-15 ft tall with an irregular or somewhat rounded growth pattern. I do have a neighbor who has real pruning talent and his SB is quite an elegant looking small tree. If I let mine grow tree size but pruned, it would probably be more like a Kousa dogwood in shape, since it takes real nerve to thin out the tree enough to look like my neighbor's tree does. Anyway, Smokebush can be grown in full sun & is not as delicate as the Japanese Maples are in zone 5 (at least my zone 5 garden on wet heavy clay). They come in purples and greens, including lime greens. They are also easily transplanted - I've moved mine twice. I use mine with Rozanne geranium climbing all over it, dark red daylilies on each side, Knockout roses around it on the back side, & shaded by taller shrubs & ornamental grasses, so despite being listed as full sun I doubt that you would have trouble with it in an eastern location. Oh, I just remembered I have daffodils planted all around its base for spring color, so it's root system isn't delicate. I do warn you though, it is a somewhat late riser in spring, and can be awkward looking when first planted with tall unbranched stems. I highly recommend heavy pruning in its first few years to encourage branching....See MoreVine Maple diseased?
Comments (8)Ugh! After looking it up and seeing pictures of others' trees with it, that's what it looks like...the wood underneath (where the bark is peeling off) is almost black in most areas. So it's decided...the Vine Maple will come out. I see the internet has many listings of susceptible and resistant plants. I never realized that this is the same thing that most likely killed my Silk Tree about 4 years ago (bark splitting, black wood underneath), but I saw that Silk Trees are also listed as susceptible. It also probably explains why my Smoke Tree is looking scorched. It's 5 yrs old and has only grown from a 1' planting to a 2' spindly plant at present time. My neighbor is losing her Crimson King Maple (one section at a time), so I bet it's the same thing. I cut a branch off of the Autumn Blaze Maple (some of the leaves are a little scorched looking, but I thought it was the heat. There are small areas of black staining under the bark in a couple of places on the branch I cut. So I think that tree is going to have to come out (even though the tree looks ok at this time, I'll probably remove/replace it sooner, rather than later, because I'd rather do it when it is a manageable 20' tree). Well, I now know that this is something I must consider when planning the plantings in my yard from now on. Thanks for the info!...See MoreJapanese maple
Comments (11)How much growth these guys will put on depends entirely on the specific cultivar of the tree in question and where it has been grafted - some low graft weeping dissectums will never achieve much height and other, rather dwarf forms grow very slowly. How much sun these can take also depends on cultivar and location. Some red leafed cultivars will bronze or green out in full sun, but provided they receive adequate irrigation, they tolerate these conditions well. In fact red leaved forms are more often suggested for full sun locations than many others. In a PNW zone 8 climate (pretty far north so rather weak summer sun), pretty much any Japanese maple can be grown in full sun. The amount of growth a tree puts on is only tangentially related to water. Obviously if consistently deprived of water, many trees will remain stunted - Japanese maples are far more delicate and picky about these things and water deprivation for them will just lead to death. Too much water is just as bad - it can lead to some pretty serious root rots to which J maples are prone. Ideally, these trees want an organically rich, freely draining yet moisture retentive soil that is slightly to moderately acidic. Not too terrifically difficult to achieve, ehh??? :-)) So tell us what kind of Japanese maple you have and we can let you know how large it may be expected to get and with what speed....See Moreneed advice on varieties of japanese maples
Comments (9)I think this sounds like a great idea. I notice that you are in ohio, so the full sun will not be as bad of a problem as it could be. Having said that, your trees still could get some leaf burn in late summer. Many cultivars of japanese maples do have a layering habit, but a little pruning enhances this quality. You are right about the 'bloodgood' being an upright large (for JM standards) tree. It would likely get 30 ft high and 20 or so wide in a reasonable time (and in like 50 years significantly larger). There are hundreds of cultivars, so recommending just a few would be difficult. However, we can give a few good common trees, and you can check around to see what's available. There are several semi-upright reds that are considered smaller than 'bloodgood'. Unfortunately, most growers do not shape their uprights to have a nice spreading shape. They pack them in tight and the trees grow straight up, but you might be able to find a few oddballs that have started getting some horizontal branching. 'Fireglow' is supposedly a smaller red with similar color to 'bloodgood' (there is conflicting information as to its size, it may get almost as large as 'bloodgood'). The habit will be similar, but you might find a tree with good horizontal structure. 'Moonfire' is another similar tree, probably with more purple than the above. There is also conflicting information about this tree, some say it is as large as 'bloodgood' and some say half the size. Judging from the trees I have seen, I would say it is on the smaller end of that range. It seems to have more horizontal growth and less long leggy limbs. 'Pixie' is a dwarf red similar to 'bloodgood' in color (perhaps not holding quite as long), but much smaller. Many of these trees I have seen had good layerered branch structure. However, it is difficult to tell whether this was natural or trained. There are several others and some other folks will probably reccomend a few more like 'shin deshojo', but I'll move on. There are many greens that could fit into this middle sized layered type. I don't know where to start here, but perhaps a weeping variety like 'waterfall' or 'viridis' would be good. They will usually spread wider than tall, but they are often staked and pruned to be more upright or mushroom shaped. There are several mid sized trees like 'tsuma gaki' that would be beautiful (although it might not do well in the sun), but the likelihood of finding one at a local nursery is slim. As far as low mounding types, a red weeping dissectum like 'crimson queen' could be used here if it hadn't been staked. It will grow more or less horizontally and along the ground if untrained. However, it can get quite wide in the 10 ft range. There are several dwarf shrubby types like 'shaina' that you might run accross that would be signifcantly smaller and have a low mounding habit....See MoreLisa
7 years agoLisa
7 years agoLisa
7 years agoOk so here are some pictures I just took, I took 3 of them so you can all get a good look the inside all the tiny branches have been dead for a few yrs now they just break off I tried cleaning it out kinda tough I don't want to disturb the growing process
Lisa
7 years agoLisa
7 years agoOk so I went and cleaned out all the dead branches and will be mulching in a week should I put milorganite before? Do you think it looks better :(
Lisa
7 years agoOne more up close no more dead little branches the others have teeny buds on them ( some do ) I hope it fills in this yr, you think it will or won't
Lisa
7 years agoLisa
7 years agoLisa
7 years agoLisa
6 years agoThank you Logan ;) It's getting a little bit fuller here is a pic I took today after mulching I did trim the bottom a little so you can see my Golden mop thread bushes :)
Lisa
6 years agoLol I get so many compliments on that tree w those golden mops :) I did clean out all the dead branches the ones you're seeing are alive still they have green in the middle just kinda odd this yr and more sparse this is what it looked like this time LAST yr which I Love it to look like more full...
Logan L Johnson
6 years agoThe color is nice together. I just don't like the pruning.
Go for this:
(there would normally be more leaves, but this photo is fall or spring)
Not this:
Lisa thanked Logan L JohnsonLisa
6 years ago
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