Time to start this season's thread. Acer monspessulanum, seeds collected in my garden in August, and put in sand in the fridge until late december. I sowed them and left them outside, and they're the first ones to germinate :
Seems to be another silly year. No doubt we will pray for no frost, but in the mean time you're not alone, Rich: even the maples outside (pots or no) are near bursting. The tataricum group has already opened, I think Acer opalus is probably flowering, but have to go look. Planting not done... Lots out in the polytunnel, time to start a "Spring Growth 2026" I fear. But meanwhile, saw these Acer rufinerve popping up after a "winter" outside. It's even effecting seed from the fridge: although I started stratifying late, I already had to lay out Acers pilosum and davidii into trays. Here's the early little rufinerves outside, these are on 2nd year now:
Nothing too interesting yet. Heres a funky guy. This yellow here is a more orange than the the tennis ball yellow of the others. This tiny pseudosieboldianum seedling. These typically come out wildtype. I doubt this one will make it.
Not very many seeds have germinated so far, except half a dozen from my Acer monspessulanum in my garden, and a bunch of 'Shin deshojo', a lot of them !
I've never been able to grow monspessulanum from seed: always great germination, very early, and then they damp off. I think the early germination gets me. Shin-deshōjō often makes great seedlings! I have some more up, davidii, miyabei, pilosum, bergerianum, mixed dissectum group. Cheers, -E
Check out the cotyledons on this one. I think it may be a acer palmatum x pseudosieboldianum as the seed came from a red palmatum but the cotyledons on all the seedlings have been huge like my pseudosieboldianum's seedlings. Here's a couple others. The cotyledons are almost twice as long.
Hey, what you're calling Shirpal, really looks like sieboldianum. Like, in every way: pubescence, leaf morphology and color, petioles. Those hirsute petioles are usually a giveaway, as are the adaxial leaf surfaces. I don't remember the history, but...
I've never noticed cotyledons like that! Cool. I would guess there will be some nice red maples in there, from the color of many of the cotyledons. -E
Here are three interesting volunteers I collected. At the top of the image is a red seedling with wide cotelydons, hard to see since they're curved but they're twice as wide as normal. Looks like Dumbo. In the middle we have a dark red with warped leaves. This one stuck out immediately as having sickle style variegation akin to Acer p. Rainbow. There is a slight pink border along the sickle & I'm hoping it's not just damage from getting stuck in the seed during germination. Underneath that we have a green with interesting cotyledon pattern. Since most seedlings are at the cotyledon stage there isn't much else to select for.
Here's a sieboldianum, probably hybrid. It's a young plant, in a pot. I have a handful of these. The key point I'm making is the pubescence. A sieboldianum is pubescent along the petioles and young leaves. Neither palmatum nor shirasawanum show this pubescense. That's why when I look at "shirpal" it looks more like a sieboldianum, to my eye, than the other species. Which is not to say those don't make a contribution, these guys are all randy, who knows what they get up to? ;)
Time for 1 year old seedlings. On the left is a green palmatum seedling with A. Japonicum "green cascade" lineage. Right is a Seiryu seedling that's relatively true to form. Next is a linearilobum style. I don't know what this is, its slightly fuzzy, and leafed out much later. The the inverse, a "widelobum". Also fuzzy, also leafed out late. I really have no idea what this is. Its leaf texture feels grainy and dry.
Funky, that last one! Looking back at the thread, I see I accidentally made a post that was supposed to go into the "spring pictures" thread. Sorry about that! -E
This 6inch beauty first appeared in 2025, leafed out nicely this year and promptly snuffed it.. it quickly withered - had a good root system- none of the others did this. I know this is par for the course but it always seems to be the prettiest ones!
This is heartbreaking. You would think surviving into the next season you would be in the clear... Similarly, lost this guy this spring. Its buds dried out over the winter and never pushed growth and died.
My little mind screams: Causality! Damn you, Maple Gods! (muttering: no, not really, I didn't mean it, Maple Gods...)
Florida Maple Acer mono Acer sieboldianum The last few years I've been germinating these, I've been getting a lot of these white ones but nothing ever come of them. I also get a few variegated ones that never lives. Let's see what this year brings. 2025 sieboldianums seedling Acer pseudosieboldianum
Derek, you get some nutso germination rates. What kind of tea are you spreading in that soil?? lol. -E
Yo, E, patience, lol. The seed germination success rate is crazy. Nothing special in the soil. Keeping them alive has been the challenge in the previous years. But I have a better and stable setup now.
What time to year do you collect seeds and do you treat them with anything? Some of my seedlings like pseudosieboldianum had a high germination rate, but then others I was lucky to get 1 to sprout before they rotted.
