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| Mother |
Yes, those wonderful Japanese Maples; those I love to spend time with, observing what they are, where they are going and what they can be.
These wonderful and majestic trees and shrubs are somewhat bewildering to even the most learned and artful pruner.
These are the plants on which I cut my teeth before I began studying arboriculture and horticulture.
I was told I had a knack for working with them before I had a clue what I was doing. But, even then, I loved doing so and a few customers said so, as well.
The one you see in the photo above I named Mother because she is the matriarch of a property which contains about 15 other Japanese Maples, all, I have cared for. Mother is about 20 feet tall and I can't take credit for her early development, yet I have worked with and pruned her for the last six years. She is gorgeous, rare and expensive. She's probably worth over $15,000.00 ($25.00 when planted about 25 year ago) even if one were able to successfully remove and transplant her.
Most of my acquaintances, friends and customers shy away from whatever they should do with Japanese Maples and these wonderful things that can become nature's most gorgeous messes, if ignored.
Several weeks ago I began to document many of the Japanese Maples I have worked with. I did not take the time to adjust the photos for light or contrast. The changes may be slight or extreme. My pruning can deal with current health, aesthetics, future growth or simply to make space within a plant bed or landscape.
I have named a few of my favorites along the way.
Crazy Girl got my attention from the beginning several years ago when I realized she was special and then I started doing what I call a jagged cut (prune) - it showed off her desire to produce so many new shoots of varying lemon and lime colors on her lateral branches. Now she's grown up and I gave her a more formal pruning (with some liberty) to show off her legs.
Japanese Maples are so fun to watch grow and if need be to help them along the way or to maintain them once they have established themselves.
No photo can illustrate the beauty of a Japanese Maple compared to walking around one in person or experiencing it throughout the shadows and light of the day, or its changes throughout the year.
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| Crazy Girl - Before |
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| Crazy Girl - After |
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| Stretch- Before |
This is one of my favorites because of her branch structure. I had to rehab her after the lawn service decided to cover her bed with rocks.
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| Stretch - After |
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Before
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| After |
I often do what I call
gap layering to show off some of the branch structure on some interesting dwarf Japanese Maples to reveal their branch structures.
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