Most cultivars of Japanese maples go through a variety of colorings during the course of the season: spring growth - often quit colorful and more delicate in size and shape (leaves not yet full unfurled or developed); midseason/summer growth often with a different more intense and usually uniform color and fuller leaves; and finally fall growth, again often very brightly colored.

It is not unsurprising that the foliage you are seeing now is fully green and with a larger shape - the late freeze effectively skipped the spring coloration and a more or less solid green is the midseason coloring of this cultivar. A broader leaf shape is not unsurprising as well......it's kinda what they do :-)

did the frost kill it to the ground.. if so.. you might be growing understock ....

if you mean you just lost leaves.. and it releafed.. then that is probably not an issue ...

how about a pic of the whole ...

ken

That is not rootstock foliage. The rootstock for virtually any cultivar of Japanese maple will be just the straight specie, Acer palmatum, and they will have the typical JM shaped leaf, not heavily dissected as the last photo shows. Nor would the rootstock have produced the spreading growth habit that is apparent in the photo that rapidly. It is just a later releafing of the cultivar.

Thank you!!

It did lose all leaves, but most of the branches died as well. If not for some of the new leaves being further up the trunk, I would have thought it was understock. I didn't know that new growth could completely skip the spring cycle and emerge different. Yes, my picture is taken in the summer when the leaves are darker, but they releafed that way.

I was curious because if the new leaves continue to skip the spring coloring (red edges) I doubt I'll keep the tree. I'll upload the whole tree when I get home. I did not prune the dead branches yet since I thought I may be replacing the whole tree.

It only lost the spring foliage due to the late season freeze. That would also account for the dieback, especially with a relatively new, young tree. If there is any way to protect against that - and I have no idea how or even if that is possible as that is not something I deal with in my climate - then the tree should leaf out in spring with the typical pale colored, red tipped foliage.

Glad I learned something new!

Sometimes Googling doesn't give me all the answers :-)

There have been a lot of people growing and selling Japanese maples. There's no rule that every grower use only typical wild type A. palmatum every time for rootstock. If anyone is ever grafting onto seedlings of other Japanese maples they have access to, presumably for reasons such as those particular specimens being conveniently located or producing lots of seeds then consumers will be ending up with seedlings from those plants as the stock in such instances. Same as any other time seedlings are used for grafting of trees and shrubs instead of named clonal root-stock cultivars.

Any seedling Japanese maple IS just the species Acer palmatum. Nothing was ever said about it being a "wild type".

great discussion ... but you are not thinking in tree time.. when you say you are thinking about not keeping it ...

you must keep it.. at least thru next spring leaf out ... or a whole year .. just to observe ...

and depending based on the pic of the whole.. maybe forever ... a cool specimen.. is a cool specimen.. even if it may not be exactly what you want .... if of course.. you have the space for it ... because on the other hand.. if it doesnt make your toes curl. .. what the heck.. get rid of it ...

hows that for a big circle of logic .. lol ...

ken

I found this post while I was searching for the defintion of what exactly is considered "juvenile foliage". I'm growing a found seedling of a japanese maple and it's leaves have changed shape a bit in 2 growing seasons...so all of the "wood" is new wood.

I'm trying to figure out if the leaves are still considered "juvenile" in a two year old seedling, or if it referrs to early spring growth on a mature tree?

I attached a screen shot from the book "Japanese Maples, J. D. Vertrees 2nd edition" talking about "juvenile" leaves.

I hope this information might be helpful or interesting to other gardeners- and also hoping someone can define "Juvenile" foliage when it comes to seedlings.