Maple Madness...a not thread

[TimS]

I was able to collect the paperwork and photos on this tree today, started from seedlings in 1980 so the 4 main trees are 44 years old

[Promethius]

Nice score there, Tim. How does it look from on top?
Edited

[TimS]

Nice score there, Tim. How does it look from on top?
Edited

I was pretty happy to pick it up! Just reading the notes it came with, 30 seedlings were started in 1980, 11 put into a group in 1984 and it has slowly whittled down either through choice or death to the 4 remaining here plus the extra one added in by the previous owner to make 5 again.

Top down view and another angle on the group, i have some heavy stuff i want to cut back from some of the longer branhes, but there are good shoots interanally to cut back to. Interested to see how the small odd tree looks with the other 4

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[Robsterios]

G'day Tim.. Good to read through your Maple Madness posts.
I see the large Kashima. I too purchased one of these large ones recently. I think from the same batch if it's the place I think it is. Gave it a major chop back and several years of development will be forthcoming but I am excited by the prospect because of the variety being a very dense dwarf. I have a younger Kashima so not really fussed about air layering. keep up the posts. cheers, Rob.

[TimS]

G'day Tim.. Good to read through your Maple Madness posts.
I see the large Kashima. I too purchased one of these large ones recently. I think from the same batch if it's the place I think it is. Gave it a major chop back and several years of development will be forthcoming but I am excited by the prospect because of the variety being a very dense dwarf. I have a younger Kashima so not really fussed about air layering. keep up the posts. cheers, Rob.

Hey Rob, yep there were two of the large ones and I remember seeing one had gone a while back! The owner I think it was who dropped it off to me said the person who purchased the other one was also going to use it for bonsai so it all checks out.

I’ll be interested to see yours progress too if you decide to share photos of it down the track. I just can’t help myself but do some layers, there are some interesting branches there that can become good shohins in time with the dwarf habit

The place doesn’t seem to have these older trees often anymore, so I figured grab one and see what I can do with it

[Promethius]

Cheers! I see what you mean. Can’t see that little one working long term, but I’m ready to be proven wrong! I sort of like this front otherwise.

[TimS]

Cheers! I see what you mean. Can’t see that little one working long term, but I’m ready to be proven wrong! I sort of like this front otherwise.

Well it is a 'madness' thread, maybe i break the rules and have just the original 4 tree group and have everyone point out i need a 5th one again haha

Given how old the original trees are, the 5th will always look out of place. No way to cheat 40 odd years' worth of bark development let alone the size disparity

[TimS]

Just a couple of spring photos, still having camera issues with my phone, for some reason they are really washed out at the moment

The group i recently picked up from the Waverly show that was stared by the same woman my oldest JM was. It's gone mad this spring, already almost completely leafed out, and the 5th tree isn't wildly different in leaf genetics to the 4 original trees from 1980.

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Then the rule breaking, multi canopy tree has suddenly woken up and started pushing. It's even flowering this year, though i am pinching it so they aren't going to be remaining

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Finally my oldest JM, very uneven pushing this year which i attribute to being savaged by catepillars in Autumn along with all my other maples and i think it stressed it pretty badly. Bigger update will be in the rebuild thead

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[Robsterios]

Hey Tim... the multi canopy Maple that is flowering, is that a Kamagata? I ask as the twin trunk air layer that you did is flowering profusely - more than any other maple. Looks great I might add. rgs. Rob.

[TimS]

Hey Tim... the multi canopy Maple that is flowering, is that a Kamagata? I ask as the twin trunk air layer that you did is flowering profusely - more than any other maple. Looks great I might add. rgs. Rob.

Hey Rob, it’s definitely not a Kamagata, but it is definitely a cultivar. I need to sit down with my JM reference book (same one you have) and try to ID it, properly. I thought it might be a Komachi Hime initially but the leaves don’t match up. The tips of the leaves are a strong pink/red against a quite light yellow-green palm. I’ll try to get a clear photo, it’s quite distinctive

Good to hear the kamagata is flowering strongly, sounds like it’s established firmly on its on roots now after the air layer. Keep me updated I’d love to see how you progress it

[Robsterios]

Too upright for Komachi Hime imo...They grower wider than high with many stems pointing horizontally - like a big mushroom.

[TimS]

Too upright for Komachi Hime imo...They grower wider than high with many stems pointing horizontally - like a big mushroom.

Yeah way too upright for Komachi for sure. Here's a photo of the leaves coming out now.

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[TimS]

Madness will occur this year as i begin air layering season.

Cultivars i will be doing in one form or another are: Arakawa, Kashima, Mikawa Yatsubusa and possibly Shindeshojo if i get excited enough and i can be bothered keeping an eye on an air layer in the front garden and not just forgetting about it. I've also added some new red leaf cultivars Seigen, Shirazz and Kandy Kitchen after a trade deal but none of them will be ready for any kind of propagation this year.

I have 3 Mikawa Yatsubusas that will be getting air layer treatment this one. One garden tree that needs reductions to begin bonsai life, and then these two 'twin' standard grafted ones. I set the layer on one today as it was a bit further along the leafing out process than the other, but they are both wonderful little clump trees pretty much ready to begin bonsai life now. I will be keeping them grafted onto straight species rootstock due to how they have been grafted, but this cultivar can be tricky to find good bonsai-able material of so i snapped them up

Rubbish photos because i didn't account for the Kashima behind making it hard to tell where the MY actually was

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[TimS]

Making a start on this big Trident maple (mug in photo for size reference)

The previous owner of the tree had basically hedge pruned the tree, so there were lots of unsightly lumps, bumps, knuckles on straight branches and hard movement direction changes.

This is a tree I'm not anticipating keeping for more than 3-5 years tops, therefore I'm not starting a thread for it I'm just going to improve the branch structure a little and then release it back into the wild for someone else to take on. For that reason, I've kept the traditional triangular style rather than cutting everything off and starting again with a bare trunk.

On one hand this isn't a style i would set out to create with a younger maple, on the other hand you have to work with what you have and what i have is a very traditional, flat foliage pad formal upright tree that there's no benefit to trying to radically change when i don't intend to keep it.

I've cut off the worst knobs and knuckles, so it has created a couple of decent scars on the trunk, but some were so bad they were like an apple on the end of a toothpick, so they had to go.

Sarting point; overgrown but the mug you can see the size of the tree

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One of the larger scars i had to make

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Rubbish photo but basic wiring to just lightly guide a few branches where the need to go to make foliar pads around the circumference of the tree.

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[TimS]

Being a devotee of the Japanese Maple i am always disgusted but how quickly Trident Maple can be developed in comparison

So 2 months ago i cut back the worst of the weird knobby ends of this Trident Maple, and wired up some new shoots, since them i've done maybe 1 or 2 cut backs of strong shoots here and there and it's already devloping. With plenty of the growing season left i'll be able to keep the ball rolling well i hope.

The canopy overall is very uneven, so a bit of work to do to even it all up, but yeah, i wish i could defoliate and cut back JM as often as Trident maple

As it looked when i had a go at it

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Wire removed today and another cut back of the long shoots

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