AusBonsai

Welcome to Maple Madness

Since joining i have started many threads for many trees; a large number of which now lie forever dormant as those trees have left my hands. I have thought for some time how to combat this, and the only logical solution i could come to was to begin a not thread.

This will be a place for me to update anything maple related. From seed to air layer, from rough stock to mature bonsai, this will be not a thread but a parking lot for all maple related things I'm doing that aren't on the handful of trees that have their own dedicated threads that do get updated albeit infrequently. As the name suggests, there will be a degree of madness in not tracking individual trees, but hopefully the idea works.

It will not follow the progress of any single tree, though I'm sure they will repeat through the seasons, without expectation they will stay with me forever though.

There may end up being a sister thread of Prunus as i start to move into larger scale propagation and growing of apricot, cherry and other prunus species but that's for later to worry about.

So for now i have a few to being the thread with and they will have their own posts in here to make it slightly easier to arrange.

First off is one of two young maples i picked up entirely for their small natural leaves and somewhat unusal trunklines.

This one i nickname the dragon's tail due to the nature of the trunk that was below the soil line in the 8" pot. It's very early for this kind of work, but i had a pig of a day at work and playing with trees helps me wind down.

Here is the starting point. I cut it back hard to remove taperless straight branches that eminated from the base, so it's not much to look at right now
Here is the trunk that was hidden blow the soil line, i liked keeping the roots below where the trunks head upwards as well as at the back of the 'tail'. I figure the roots forward will fuse to support that area visually in time

Here potted into a spare seed tray i had laying around you get the idea of having so much trunk exposed as being not the usual way Japanese Maple is presented and therefore something i'm interested in pursuing.

Next up is the second tree that was in the same batch i picked up the previous tree from, so the same naturally small leaves.

No nickname for this one, but i rarely see Japanese Maple in natural clumps, so this one was another "that's unusual, i might pick it up" kind of tree.

Here's what we're working with, i've tried to show that the smaller shoots have fused to the trunk but not sure how visible that is

After excavation i found that unlike the one above, this one had a thick section of trunk below the clump

After cogitating for about 90 second on whether i should cut it right back to the upper clump roots in one go, i decided what the hell and got into it. It was cheap so nothing lost if it dies. Potted into a spare seed tray i had about, various photos to try to show the clump.

And third for tonight this was gifted to me by a fellow member, you know who you are

In need of some love, it has some nice gentle movements in the trunk, looks to have some good age too.


After a little trim here, a little trim there and some dead wood removal
Loots a little odd with the loop branch, no this isn't a thread graft, i've just bent a young long shoot down and used a lower dead branch to attach the wire to Here is a very quick edit for my vague initial thoughts of what to do with it. Green being where the anticipated foliage pads will be, orange being where i hopefully can get some back budding or manipulate foliage to, and red being sections to remove or reduce.

Love that last tree, it could become something pretty cool. Keep it coming. You've got me thinking of posting about all my maple projects in a single post now

This is a good idea Tim, and one I was going to start in spring for all my species 'practices'. Look forward to a long progression.

BirchMan wrote: ↑May 25th, 2023, 10:06 am This is a good idea Tim, and one I was going to start in spring for all my species 'practices'. Look forward to a long progression.

Cheers, i think it's a good idea for my trees that aren't really deserving of their own threads and certainly makes remembering what to update easier.

If you do decide to start one your self for you spring practices i'll be keen to follow along

Keels wrote: ↑May 24th, 2023, 7:06 pm Love that last tree, it could become something pretty cool. Keep it coming. You've got me thinking of posting about all my maple projects in a single post now

Yep i think there is a nice future tree in there just begging to be let out, like most of my trees it's a few years off hence this thread!

For sure start a project maple thread for all yours, i think the more people share what they are doing the better really. More ideas and knowledge flowing about the place.

I'm slowly, or quickly depending on how you look at it, moving through some of my really rough as old badgers maples to try to sort out in my head what is worth continuing with and what should be released from my back garden for others to take on.

This is still in the 'hmmmmmmm' stage of not sure if i bother continuing with or if i think there is a worthwhile tree in there i can pull out over time.

It's a Sango Kaku coral bark maple stump i purchased on somewhat of a whim and then promptly put aside as a project to worry about later.

Well later came today and i was sick of looking at it pot bound in the 30cm nursery pot and decided to get stuck in. Glad i did as there was a bit of a root aphid situation that i will deal with.

Anyway, nothing fancy here just out of the pot, bare root the tree (root aphid), cut back ugly/ thick/ crossing/ otherwise dog cookies looking roots then bang it in a poly grow box.

What it started as. I had cut it back in summer to restart a lot of the branches and to begin a new apex leader as well, so it's particularly average looking at the moment.
Out of the pot (white spots to me appear to be root aphid) Definitely in need of root work.
Used a hack saw and cut the root ball in half directly to save time, then started working out the soil to look for nebari. Here you can see the difference in soil levels
Bare rooted and can have a good look at the ugly roots i have to deal with 4
Here's after dealing with roots looks like, still probably 2 or 3 more future repots and hard root work before the base is actually any good. No photo #6 becuase it was blurry AF
Into the poly box, couple of scars where ugly roots were removed
And along side the previous maples from further up the thread for some scale

This what you going for?

A bit more billowy and layered branching, wider canopy to give some chance for tapered branches along the lines of this

Had a go at this trident today which is an air layer taken by a member of one of the clubs i belong to who sadly has passed away

As i got it as a freebie from the club Here you can see the sphagnum still up the the trunk
Here's an example of what shibui says with roots growing from the flat cut, this is actually below the level the ring bark was done at so it's been removed along with about 5 inches of old trunk Cut the remainder of the trunk below the layer line off up closer to the higher up roots In the maple recovery section under the back yard patio The red line is where i'm intending to set a layer on later this year. No immediate design plans for it, just going to let it respond and see what it throws up for me to use. I'll grab some young trident whips off shibui next year to do some root grafting assuming it grows away healthily this year

I really like that 'gecko' maple at the top of the thread

Kedron Brook wrote: ↑August 6th, 2023, 2:43 pm I really like that 'gecko' maple at the top of the thread

Cheers! I've become quite bored of the usual maple material that is being produced (ie informal upright and predictable movement) so any time i see a maple with anything unusual in its style i grab it. This one just ended up being even more unusual than i expected once i dug down in the pot

Spring is underway here in bayside Melbourne.

With how difficult it is (impossible) to avoid leaf burn and get good autumn colour i've started to look for JM cultivars with Spring colour instead. My favourite by far of these is a.palmatum 'Katsura' with this peachy/ apricot new foliage that is one of the first to break dormancy. Just a young plant at the moment, and likely will become a garden tree for future air layering purposes. I wish there was more of this cultivar available but i've never see it in nurseries here, and have only seen one as a bonsai (not for sale). So very long term growing with this one. And the old maple has started leafing out now too. I've pulled an upper branch futher up to try to disguise the stretched neck look, but later in the year i'm planning a workshop with Scott Martin to discuss the future direction for this tree and another that could use a far more experienced eye and hand than i possess. As far as a clear stying direction goes, it's just been treading water really, so this year is the year to crack on with it.