Japanese maples ...a lesson

Arising from other threads, I want to post two photographs to illustrate the importance of planting these maples properly and of not over watering or feeding, and to illustrate that these little trees have one set of spare buds just waiting to burst into life should the first set shrivel up (for whatever reason)
(They only have one spare set though, so don't get carried away )
The first pic shows an Acer palmatum 'Taylor' which I received from Holland in April. It arrived with me with the leaves totally shrivelled up. As soon as I receive plants in the post I water them and allow them to rest. With this particular plant, that was a mistake. When I tested it a few days later the finger test told me that the soil was much too wet
I broke up the soil where it was to be planted and then planted it almost on the top of the ground, and built up around it with a good garden soil. I added a little bone meal to the planting area to help with root growth. I resisted the temptation to water it in, mulched around it, and left it alone
The second pic shows the little plant a couple of days ago. It hasn't been watered, or fed, or anything done with it except to leave it alone to do what it wants to do, and that is to settle in and grow. It got watered when it rained and that didn't happen too often during this past month
It hasn't been subjected to any strong winds, and is fairly sheltered and in a not too sunny position (it would get afternoon sun)
I can see that it is going to do fine .... now all I have to do is to keep it protected from my resident hare

 

wow, i like the coloratuion in the second photo!

 

Thanks for the advise - I have a Japanese Maple on which the leaves are starting to curl up. It's only a baby and in quite a large pot. I think over-watering may be the problem so I'll dry it out and see what happens. It would be a shame to lose it.

 

Hi Whis4ey;
Thanks for the info, I Have bought a Acer Palmatum Atrorurpureum this year, my first Acer, sorry to sound dumb but, is it the same Plant and does,e the info apply? :o

 

Same plant daisy

 

Hi, I am a new member. I know very little about gardening but bought the above bronze coloured Japanese Acer 12 years ago when it was tiny. About 8 years ago a small amount of it went crispy and subsequently the branches went completely dead and we had to cut them off. Since then it has been fine and grown beautifully until last winter when again part of it died completely and this spring we had to cut those completely dead branches off. Then in June this year about a quarter of the remaining beautiful leaves all turned crispy. Why does this happen and what can we do about it? I am afraid I am going to end up losing the whole beautiful tree! The photo above was taken April 2011 when it was smaller and healthier than it is now.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated??

 

Sadly my little bronze coloured Japanese Acer tree is looking very sad and looks like all the leaves are drying up. WE are in Turkey so I guess I have been watering it too much as I was afraid it would die from lack of water because of the heat. I have put it in the shade now and have put mulch around the large pot. Will my little trees die ? or will they come back next year? This is what they look like now.

 

This is the other one, Thanks.

 

I do believe I have the second growth coming through on my little trees, I was panicking as I thought they might die on me, but the future looks a little better now. When do the go dormant for the winter?

 

Hi Tony,

When trees loose their leaves early due to some trauma, they will often grow a new set that come out smaller. This is used by Bonsai growers, they deliberately cut the leaves off to get smaller re growth.

The trees will go dormant as the light levels drop in the autumn.

Well done for keeping them alive in Turkey, i've worked out there & know how extreme the weather is.

 

I am like a mother hen with my little trees, I am a total novice when it comes to growing anything, but I am determined to grow there little trees, so any help is gratefully received. I am keeping them in the shade and have been for several weeks, do you think that the trees will get hardy in time (to the heat) ?

 

Hi All

I grow all of mine in John Inns no3 with added grit, I think multi-purpose is the problem it hold the water around the roots which causes them to rot.

Spruce

 

What a cracking tree, if mine gets to look half as good I will be a happy fella.

 

Do you get 6 foot of snow in the Winter Tony?