General ground growing advice wanted

[GavinG]

Some lovely funky literati trunks there. Don't seem to be palmatum, maybe japonicum? Only guessing.

How do people feel about cranky literati maple trees? I don't think the Japanese do them, but I must confess I really like the contrast between the delicate leaves and the worn/battered/eventful trunk. They both might like to lean over sideways.

That second trunk has some good scarring at the base. I'd tend to take them down to about half their present height to where the taper stops.

Very fine

Gavin

[MattA]

Hey Gavin,

Out of a whole heap of maples at the wholesalers it was those trunk lines that made these 2 mine, I had my eye on another but my mentor grabbed it for himself, a variety called 'Butterfly'. I have seen one or two literati maples that worked quite well, many more maples of any style that dont.

Thanks for the clue on ID, the best match I can find for the first is Acer japonicum 'Aconitifolium' (Fullmoon maple), Flower & autumn leaf colours will confirm or make me look again. Once the next stage of works is done on my pond garden I can see this tree moving into it as one of the features, I really like its long lanky line, it is really much nicer in person than in the photos, but thats the usual I find for most trees bonsai or not.

I think the second with the scarred trunk is a palmatum, most likely one with burgundy new growth turning to green. This one has the most potential to return to a pot and your right it will need to be reduced considerably. I cut one of the 3 larger top branchs off before I planted it out, I will get into the rest at bud break next year. Then clip & grow for another yr or 2 before putting it back into a pot.

Ground growing is great for building trunks & basic structure but its even better at increasing ramification as long as you keep on top of the pruning and continue to do root work regularly.

Matt