Japanese Maples

Thirty two listings, thirty one of them Acer palmatum. The odd one out is Acer japonicum Vitifolium: a broad, circular leaf closer to a grapevine than to the pointed hand people picture.

Named clone, seedling line or colour class

Five listings say on their own pages that the plants vary one to the next. The plain Acer palmatum is seedling grown. Both Atropurpureum Purple Maple listings are a seedling group, not one clone. Nishiki Fountain sits under a name the trade uses loosely. On dissectum Bronze, bronze is a colour class, not a registered cultivar. Ask for photographs of the actual plant, and do not count on two matching. For a formal pair, the grafted Atropurpureum Purple Maple Standards are sold for that job.

Named cultivars behave predictably, which matters most in the reds. Bloodgood holds deep purple red through summer where seedling Atropurpureum goes a muddy bronze green by January. Red Pygmy does not hold: its strap like lobes run to bronze and olive in the heat before turning gold. Emperor 1 leafs out later, which ducks the late frosts that catch earlier reds in cold districts. Shaina is a compact sport of Bloodgood, congested and tight headed, for a bed that cannot carry one.

Uprights, mounds and the seven standards

Graft height decides where a dissectum mound sits. Viridis is usually worked at about waist height and the Atropurpureum weeper at a set height, even in their non-standard listings. Two cultivars do not mound at all. Seiryu carries threadlike foliage on an upright leader and builds a small tree with a rounded head. Omurayama cascades at the tips but keeps gaining height instead of settling into a dome, on broader leaves that hold up better in wind. Inaba Shidare is the purple red mound that keeps its depth furthest into summer. Among the uprights, Okushimo is the one that stays genuinely narrow: a side garden or a bed against a fence.

Seven listings are grafted standards on a clear stem: dissectum Viridis, Orangeola, Ornatum Bronze, Emerald Lace, dissectum Green, the dissectum Atropurpureum weeper and Atropurpureum Purple Maple. Five also appear under a second, non-standard listing, so you are choosing a form, not a plant. The standard buys clearance underneath and stops a wide mound swallowing a small bed. It also fixes a height, so read the growing guide first.

Which grade to buy

400mm, near enough to 35 litres of rootball, is offered by 23 of the 32 listings, the sensible default. Ten floor at 250mm, near nine litres. The seedling Acer palmatum and the Atropurpureum weeper drop to 200mm, about four and a half litres; Emperor 1 alone offers a 150mm pot under two litres. Four carry no pot grade at all. Red Globe at 90L and Emerald Lace Standards at 100L are two person loads. dissectum Green Standards at 300L and dissectum Green from 500L up are crane jobs. Settle access and viewing angle first.

Eight listings offer bare root, under four labels that do not line up between farms: Bare Root Small, Regular, Advanced, and plain Bare root. It moves in the dormant season only, into prepared ground. Growth across the range is slow to moderate, so a bigger grade is the only shortcut.

The doubled listings

Seiryu is here twice, and not as the same purchase. Acer palmatum dissectum Seiryu runs from 250mm to large bagged stock and includes bare root. Acer palmatum Seiryu is a shorter run in the middle grades. Sango Kaku and Senkaki Coral Bark Maple are one coral barked maple under both its names, with different grade runs. That colour comes up strongest where winters are cold, so the tablelands and the Adelaide Hills get more from them than the coast.

Nothing here is a nature strip or open lawn tree. For full sun with wind, the trident and other sun hardy maples sit in maples.