[ID] please

[AndreasM]

I recently was able to obtain some small Japanese Maple planted in Bonsai pots from a person no longer being able to look after them.

My first experience with Japanese Maples. Firstly, I was wondering if any member can identify the variety of maple. There is a single planting, and then a dual planting, I think they are all the same, possibly even from the same original stock? but I don't know what specific kind of JM they might be.

It might just help a little to work out what i might do them in the long run... they are all small so presumably want to grow them all for a while. Both plantings are in small pots, so will probably consider grow pots for them initially.

[TimS]

To my eye they look like straight species, or seedlings with slight genetic differences but not named cultivars. 2nd photo of the first one throws me a bit as it looks grafted at first glance, but I don’t think it actually is.

JM is imo one of the hardest species to grow into a quality tree just with their growth habit. I’d advocate slow growing them in clip and grow manner to avoid ugly taper less branching

[AndreasM]

To my eye they look like straight species, or seedlings with slight genetic differences but not named cultivars. 2nd photo of the first one throws me a bit as it looks grafted at first glance, but I don’t think it actually is.

JM is imo one of the hardest species to grow into a quality tree just with their growth habit. I’d advocate slow growing them in clip and grow manner to avoid ugly taper less branching

Thank you for your response - much appreciated. Good to know that it is likely a straight up JM.

just in case you were interested in the phantom graft on the first one, I have attached two close ups front and reverse. I wonder if it was just cut back really hard and now has such a clear line and knot, because all or most of the new shoots came out of the same spot.

JM is imo one of the hardest species to grow into a quality tree just with their growth habit. I’d advocate slow growing them in clip and grow manner to avoid ugly taper less branching

that sounds like good advice. am just starting to learn anyway, so why not start learning clip and grow! thank you

[AndreasM]

and here are the photos I forgot to attach

[shibui]

There are so many JM cultivars, many with just minor differences. We can often tell you what cultivar they are not but, with a few exceptions, we can rarely reliably tell what cultivar it is. Without proven provenance any unlabelled Japanese maple is just a Japanese maple.

From the leaves and bark I also suspect these are seed grown so not any particular cultivar.
IMHO seedling JM usually make better bonsai anyway.

Japanese maples are very common but can be quite difficult to develop good bonsai. They have several growth habits that make it difficult for us.
1. Strong Spring shoots and long internodes means we need to trim and select suitable shoots to develop branching or the tree ends up with trunk and branches with very sparse ramification. I can see that here in the main branches of the single tree but suspect it is also present in the dual planting.
It often takes a very hard cut back to remove the problems and diligent attention with the subsequent growth to develop more suitable branching.

2. Multiple shoots from each node. This habit means we quickly get swellings and inverse taper. To develop good quality JM bonsai we need to be constantly looking for, and removing, excess buds and shoots.

If you're happy to have beginner standard bonsai you have a good start and could just work with what's there already. Just trim longer shoots to shape.

[AndreasM]

Japanese maples are very common but can be quite difficult to develop good bonsai. They have several growth habits that make it difficult for us.
1. Strong Spring shoots and long internodes means we need to trim and select suitable shoots to develop branching or the tree ends up with trunk and branches with very sparse ramification. I can see that here in the main branches of the single tree but suspect it is also present in the dual planting.
It often takes a very hard cut back to remove the problems and diligent attention with the subsequent growth to develop more suitable branching.

2. Multiple shoots from each node. This habit means we quickly get swellings and inverse taper. To develop good quality JM bonsai we need to be constantly looking for, and removing, excess buds and shoots.

If you're happy to have beginner standard bonsai you have a good start and could just work with what's there already. Just trim longer shoots to shape.

Thank you - will follow this approach and see how I go. definitely will see what I can learn from these trees