Hello everyone. This is my first post to the forum. This little maple is new to me last year at the American Bonsai Society conference in Denver CO, So I can't claim much of the work at this point other than the fall trim and general care. (I will share more of my own work soon though.) Just a beautiful little maple that I thought you might enjoy. Originally imported from Japan.
Here's some progression on an amur maple, Acer ginnala, that I've been working on for at least 8 years. Originally given to me by a friend who collected the tree in Iowa. Interestingly, it was not variegated until the past five years. All of a sudden it was there! My only guess is that it's some type of viral infection, but it doesn't seem to affect the tree's health overly much.
Hi, Amur Maple regularly becomes under a couple of circumstances: high growth rate and post-stress. So young seedlings are often variegated until established, and large trees will show some variegation the year after a difficult season. Sometimes. In either case, nothing at all to worry about. Cheers, -E
Thank you Emery, That makes a lot of sense. Simply being restricted in a bonsai pot may be just enough stress to bring it out in this case. I hadn't considered this. Cheers, Dan
Good job! I find this species more difficult to work with than palmatum because the internodes are longer, yet I still have a couple in training.
Thank you! I agree, the internodes are longer than palmatum. After years in the small pot, and only re-potting when absolutely necessary it has slowed the growth down significantly though. I used to need a good partial defoliation in late spring/early summer the first few years in a pot, but now only a bit of tidying up does the trick. Do the field maples (campestre) have long internodes as well? I don't have much experience with them but they seem like they would behave similarly.
It got some oidium, and suffered a bit from drought, so the autumn colours were not spectacular at all. But it's alive ! ;-)
Photos taken at Birmingham (uk) Botanical Gardens - UK National collection of bonsai. Please excuse the truly terrible photos - the trees are all behind bars and it’s very difficult to take a straight on photo
Thank you for sharing! Beautiful trees. Bonsai jail... that is a bit odd though. lol. Have they had theft issues in the past?
I have no idea, but I am aware a gang of thieves sole a gold toilet pan worth £4.8m with ease from Blenheim Palace a little while ago, if it’s not nailed down it seems to get stolen here! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj3nrrmk04mo.amp
These were on display at RHS Malvern show last weekend, they look better (to my untrained eye) than the UK national collection that I posted previously
My first attempt at a maple bonsai. it’s an Acer Palmatum Seiryu. Not the best choice of cultivar for bonsai, but I think the trunk and nebari is promising and it’s less scary with this one that I don’t know what else to do with. I’ve seen many YouTube videos but when actually making the cuts I hesitate. I can’t decide where to cut the central leader. I’m thinking either of the places marked with red might work. The lower cut already has a new leader, but I worry the trunk will be too short and go from thick to thin too fast. Also I think the two lower branches are too thick, which leaves me with just a short trunk with not much going on. when and where to cut? Everything at once or gradually? (I will adjust so the nebari sits straight. I planted it to hastily)
The possible central leader I’m talking about is the very thin branch, not the thick which is actually coming up from the back of the trunk.
My first maple and second attempt at bonsai. A.P. Mikawa Yatsubusa and Juniperus davurica Parsonii. Got to start somewhere.
