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We discuss this local favorite and the many ways you can customize your Japanese Maple to find the perfect plant for your yard!
Show Notes
Keith Ramsey: Hey, this is Keith Ramsey at the garden supply company. Today. We're going to talk about Japanese Maples. I always feel like Japanese Maples are kinda misunderstood. Everybody thinks they're extremely slow-growing and. They're really expensive. We carry a wide variety of one gallon Maples, and I've planted lots of one gallon Maples over the years.
[00:01:01] There's about 3000, 4,000, maybe an unlimited number of varieties of Maples. It's not like you just have to have one Japanese maple in your yard. There are tons of different colors; there are different sizes, there are different shapes. One maple compliment another maple.
[00:01:16]You can plant mixed like a mixed border of Maples. There are Maples that leaf out chartreuse. There's Maples that leaf out. Burgundy. When you break it down into two, into really two large groups, there's Palmatums, which are a large Palmate leaf, and most of that 99% are upright.
[00:01:34] There's a couple of holdouts that are weeping palmatum, so that's a big Palmate, leaf. The other half of the plants are dissectums. So a dissectum is a dissected leaf. It's the Lacy leaf Japanese maple, and most of those are weeping varieties that are going to stay smaller and that that gets wider than they do tall.
[00:01:55] They're typically a focal point in a landscape, and they need to be placed well. You don't want them in with a bunch of round shrubs. Because it's going to be around plants, and they'll just blend in. You want them sitting out on their own with ground cover underneath them or boulders or rocks around.
[00:02:13]Both varieties do really well in North Carolina. They handle our clay really well. Some of the varieties of pushing Angie year, so they are, they're slow-growing other varieties of growth, three, three feet plus. So you can buy a one-gallon maple and have a, have full-size tree in three, four years.
[00:02:32]So it's not necessarily an expensive plant. Now, a lot of times, people look at $300 plant. That's shorter than a, say, as an October glory, red maple, and, but a red maple, might push four feet of growth in a year. And it's a much, much larger tree, which is why Japanese Maples work well in the type of lots we're building on now and small courtyards.
[00:02:56] it's a plant that'll grow in a pot and live in a pot for 15, 20 years if it's treated appropriately.
[00:03:04] Joe Woolworth: I know that people like to go and purchase a Japanese maple, like from a big box store, but a lot of people run into a problem with their mislabeled, or they're not even the tree that, that they're
[00:03:12] And there's, and knowing what your planning is. Yes, half the, if you go and you pick something up, and it's just a seedling maple, you don't really know what you're getting. It's something that's been cross-pollinated. You pick up a hundred seeds, and every one of those plants might be genetically different.
[00:03:28] The neat thing about Maples is, they are crossed, and then they're grafted a lot of times. Typically they're grafted. And they're grafted for strong rootstock. And then for whatever the beneficial qualities of the top of the plant are whether it be color or the shape of the leaf or the growth habit.
[00:03:46]Joe Woolworth: If you're going into the garden supply company with your eyes on a Japanese maple cause you got the perfect spot in your yard, is it just as easy as just planting wherever you want? Or is there a little bit more to it than that?
[00:03:59] Portion it to this space. if you're doing an upright tree coral bark, Japanese Maples, or one of them, the top trees we sell the bark in the wintertime is a coral color. So when it doesn't have a leaf on it, The trees showing off. It looks great, and they're all Japanese Maples are asymmetrical.
[00:04:17] So there, each one of them is a piece of art. Everyone's very different. And the older they get, really the more character they get and the prettier they get. The dissectum's, because they're weeping, really needed a space of their own. Most shrubs are the same shape as a dissect them.
[00:04:33] So when you start blending them all in, it just looks like another blob in the landscape, if it's not out on its own. So you know, a lot of times off of the corner of a sidewalk and a driveway, somebody will put one under planet with flowers or a boulder, or something like that so that you can see the character of the tree and it's out there by itself.
[00:04:52]If you've got a tighter spot up around the house, you wouldn't want to do something like a Bloodgood that's gonna end up 20 feet wide. But a coral bark is a, or a seiryu. A Seiryu's an upright Japanese maple that's actually a dissecttum. It's one of the, one of the oddballs unbelievable spring green color.
[00:05:12] And then the fall color is a brilliant orangy red. But a tree like that, the coral bark or seiryu, are both small to medium-sized trees. So it's something you can plan off the side of a foundation, close to your house, with the appropriate spacing.
[00:05:28] Joe Woolworth: I know in our area here in the Cary area, the triangle area of North Carolina, we have a lot of neighborhoods that are established with really big trees.
[00:05:35] And then we got a lot of new development, and sometimes you move into one of those new development things, and you're starting from scratch, right? It's a Japanese maple, a great tree to plant for having some significant growth in a couple.
[00:05:46] Keith Ramsey: of years. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. And of course, it depends on the variety of there's varieties that put on an inch.
[00:05:51] And there are varieties that put on three to four feet. Picking the right tree and that's the key, whether you come to the garden supply company or you go to the Homewood nursery or Logan's Go someplace go to a small garden center where their plant knowledge is there. Picking plants without having good advice is really a waste of money. Just going in and grabbing a plant and slapping it in the ground. It just does not make sense. So going and getting the advice, the knowledge, people who have grown plants for years and years that know what the characteristics are and what will fit and what space. Picking the right plant for the right place is key.
[00:06:29] Joe Woolworth: Yeah, because I imagine everybody's got different goals. Somebody just might want an attractive tree. Somebody might want a lot of shades. Somebody might want something that doesn't grow very fast because they hate raking,
[00:06:38] Keith Ramsey: and then there are lots of people that just collect Japanese Maples. I've probably got 15, 20 different varieties.
[00:06:48] Joe Woolworth: that earlier that a lot of them come with grafted in, what does it take to graft in a Japanese maple into another kind
[00:06:54] Keith Ramsey: it's a little bit of an art and a lot of science, but it's; basically, you're cutting a groove into the end of the rootstock.
[00:07:01] So you grow on a plant and say like a one-gallon pot. And then you cut the top of the plant off, and you're cutting a V and the base of the plan. And then you cut the cut, the opposing piece, from a different plant, like a dissect them, a weeping tree.
[00:07:16]You cut that into a V, and you put it down in there, and you use grafting wax to seal that in. And the plant basically grows back together. So you're taking rootstock from one plant and. Top stock from another plant, and you're getting in an aggressive root system, something that's going to hold up really well and in our soil.
[00:07:34] Then you're adding the characteristics you want, a red weeping Lacy leaf maple. Wow. So it's tons of fun. It's an art. I've done it a handful of times. Typically people, will go out and select a maple that's been grafted.
[00:07:49]Joe Woolworth: If somebody comes in and they have a Japanese maple in their yard, and they want to get a matching one.
[00:07:53] They want to get another one, and they don't know enough to identify. Can you guys help with that? Yeah, we do
[00:07:58] Keith Ramsey: that all the time with all different types of plants. People bring in preferably a piece of the plant but pictures, and we've our staff can typically ID what that plan is. Or Japanese Maples are the same way.
[00:08:11]Of course, you've got three four, five, 10,000 varieties of Japanese Maples. It's an unlimited scenario. Nailing it every single time is not as easy, but there are 10 to 20 varieties that you see all the time. And that are really good standby plants that people use.
[00:08:27] So a lot of times, we can idea Japanese maple and be 99% certain that it's going to be a Bloodgood, or it's going to be a Crimson Queen dissectum. But there's always the off chance that it's one of those obscure, weird variety, especially with NC state here. The NC state JC Raulston Arboretum, we've got all these plant people and plant collectors and unusual plants in our area, which is a nice thing.
[00:08:52] Joe Woolworth: What do you think is the ideal size to buy a Japanese maple at, and what sizes do you guys
[00:08:58] Keith Ramsey: offer? So I don't really think there isn't really an ideal size. I plan a lot of one gallon because I want to add variety to my landscape. I'll go into the back of a perennial border and planting to plant a small one Yellen tree and give it two or three years.
[00:09:11] And all of a sudden, you've got something that's fairly substantial. But, if you're doing something that's a focal point. I think that's when you need a tree that's going to fit the space, and that's going to give you some instant gratification. So then you're spending two to three, $400 on a tree, which is really, I think, worth it when you're talking about a focal point.
[00:09:30]And it's, Maples are one of those things in North Carolina they really thrive in the clay. You want to amend to the clay, and you want to plant them high because they're, they want to be, they'd rather be on the dry side than the wet side. They really thrive in our climate.
[00:09:47]Keith Ramsey: any plant in any kind of tree we plant 12 months out of the year, and we have really good results. But the ideal time probably is from the beginning of September until the end of May. While the temperatures are still cool, plants can root in.
[00:10:02]And the plant's pretty, well-established going into summertime. I ended up doing a lot of my planning in June or July, which I would say is notably the worst time of the year to put in trees and shrubs. And I have great results. I water deeply. I keep my eyes on them. On a weekly basis and water when necessary.
[00:10:21] But a lot of times in North Carolina, the clay does hold water. So if they're elevated and you water deeply, or we get an inch of rain, I don't have an irrigation system, and I don't do a lot of watering. So it's, it's water twice a summer, the last few years.
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What is In The Garden?
In the Garden with Keith Ramsey is a podcast aimed at helping you grow and maintain a beautiful and healthy garden and landscape.
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