Japanese Maple Acer palmatum dissectum Inaba Shidare

Inaba Shidare is the laceleaf maple planted by people who have watched other dissectums fade to a tired bronze green by midsummer. The deep purple red holds its depth much further into the season before turning scarlet in autumn. Leaves are cut almost to the midrib into fine threads, and the plant cascades from the graft into a mounded, layered dome. It is also stronger growing than most weeping dissectums. Courtyards, a position over water, and large glazed pots where the weeping habit can hang clear all suit it.

Getting the position right for a laceleaf

It belongs in cool and temperate gardens, through inland Victoria, the Adelaide Hills, the Southern Highlands and the tablelands, and in cooler sheltered pockets of Perth and Sydney. Part shade to full sun is the range, but full sun only works where summers stay mild. Give it deep, free draining soil with plenty of organic matter and a slightly acidic to neutral pH, moderate water year round and a genuine soak through summer heat. Deep mulch to keep the root zone cool matters more here than most people realise. Winter cold is no risk, since the plant is bare when it arrives, and cold winters sharpen the autumn colour. The failure mode is leaf scorch, and on a laceleaf it is unforgiving. Hot dry wind and afternoon western sun burn the fine leaf margins brown, and once a dissectum is burnt it stays burnt until the next season's flush, because the threadlike lobes have nowhere to hide the damage. Morning sun with shade through the hottest part of the day is the position to aim for.

Weeping laceleaf or an upright palmatum

This is the one that cascades. Acer palmatum Elegans builds an upright vase over years and carries broad seven lobed leaves rather than threads, so it suits a bed where you want height and a canopy to sit under. Sango Kaku goes taller again and earns its keep in winter through coral red stems, with gold autumn colour rather than red. Choose Inaba Shidare when you want a low mounded shape at eye level or below, spilling over a pot rim, a rock or the edge of a pond, and when you want purple red foliage right through the growing season. All three are grafted, so rub off any shoots that appear from below the union. Compare the range in our Japanese maple collection.

Pruning a dissectum, and what to feed it

Prune in late autumn or winter while the plant is dormant and the branch structure is visible, and avoid cutting in late winter or early spring, when maples bleed sap heavily from fresh wounds. The work on a weeping laceleaf is thinning rather than shortening. Take out dead and crossing wood and open the layers so light reaches inside the mound, and resist shearing the outline, which destroys the cascading form. Feed in early spring with a slow release fertiliser formulated for acid loving plants, at label rate and no more, since heavy nitrogen produces soft growth that scorches. Top up mulch each spring, keeping it clear of the graft union.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 12 sizes, from 300mm up to 300L, priced from $179.00 to $5499.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Every size here is established stock rather than a starter plant, so this line is intended for immediate effect rather than for growing on. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to growing Japanese maples in Australian gardens.