Deshoju Japanese Maple

[yamadorikid]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone know or has some Deshoju Japanese Maples trees.
Im looking for smaller 1-3 yr in size to put into a forest style in a few years...

Im located in sydney and can drive a little if needed.

thanks everyone.

[TimS]

Probably unlikely people will have multiples available and enough for a forest or group planting.

Not sure about Sydney but Deshojo is reasonably commonly available here in garden centers in Melbourne, perhaps pick one of the ~1.5m garden tree type ones with half a dozen branches on it and air layer sections off over a couple of years to end up with enough for a group?

Would set you back $150-$250 for the tree, which if you were able to buy 5-7 at $30 each for a small ones at a bonsai nursery you'd be paying anyway, plus the garden tree will obviously have some thicker and thinner branches/ trunks so you will end up with better variation in thickness that way.

[yamadorikid]

Hi TimS,

Thanks for this idea, this will most likely be the better way to get this material. This variety looks not too common out there as Bonsai and a nursery tree might be the way to go.
thanks very much.

[TimS]

It will be a much faster route to go, but air layers are not guaranteed to work either so just try your best and don’t get discouraged if one or two fail. Just keep an eye out for ‘Shindeshojo’ in nurseries which is what we have here. I believe Deshojo is the old old cultivar and Shindeshojo (literally meaning New Deshojo) is what is commercially available in Australia. Better colour than Deshojo.

I’ve recently picked up a ‘Shishigashira’ maple to do exactly this with, it cost me $150 which buys you fudge all at a bonsai nursery these days. I’ll take 5 air layers and start a clump, plus have the base to be another clump. Can’t go too far wrong.

[WillShimpaku]

Had the exact same problem (of trying to get enough trees for a group) / idea of making a deshojo forest planting for the past two years.

Ray Nesci's up in Dural grows a couple of batches of deshojo / shindeshojo maple seedlings every year. I managed to snag a couple of 1-3 year old seedlings about a month ago, but I think they may have been the last for the year. Definitely recommend giving them a call and maybe seeing if you can find out when next year's batches will be ready.

Otherwise definitely second what Tim has said about getting yourself a bigger grafted garden centre tree and air-layering. Although I haven't seen any deshojo / shindeshojos in any of the Sydney retail nurseries that I frequent...

[yamadorikid]

Thanks very much @willshimpaku for the tip on Ray Nesci... i was actually there last month and did not even bother to think to look for the maple then.

I gave them a call this afternoon and i hit jackpot as he had 1 tree left. I quickly scooped on it haha....

Its not a huge tree, but i will just let it grow in the ground and then get some small air layers from it next year when there are more branches to work with.

The plan is to do a 4 or 5 differnet cultivars of japanese maple forest with around 15-20 trees. I have already 4 differnet cultivars now and will work on these to get them ready for the forest.

So far i have Senkaki, Deshojo, normal Acer Palmatum and 2 other varieties that i do not know the names of them, one is dark reddish and the other is light green colour. It will be a interesting forest once done as i have a few varieties of different colours.

regards,

[KineticBonsai]

I have a few Deshojo that I grew from cuttings last year.(No it’s not that hard- I took 6 cuttings and 3 grew strongly, 1 died and 2 others dried out after I potted them up).
If you can find yourself a parent plant, take cuttings in late spring. I used heel cutting and normal cuttings. Both worked. Rooting hormone in 50/50 seed raising mix/river sand.
There are several good vids on YouTube that show how. Herons Bonsai with Peter Chan is a good one.
I’d attach photos of mine but file is to big lol.
They are 1 year old cuttings and already 30cm plus high.