Favorite Maple Cultivar?

[zanduh]

Simply put, what is your favorite or your dream maple cultivar?

To start it off, my very commonplace favorite is ‘Deshojo’ Acer Palmatum for the spring pink/red



Another I’ve been digging for a while but have not found an affordable starter material is the ‘Ice Dragon’ Acer Pseudosieboldianum hybrid also known as a Jack Frost Maple. I geek out over hybrid growers and this one has gorgeous fall colors that is hardy to -30 F

 

[JudyB]

Deshojo for me too!

 

[BobbyLane]

Not a great maple fan, had good results with Acer Katsura and field maple. Tridents are also beasts in the field. my top 3

 

[Ohmy222]

Mine is Corallinum. I have around 50 cultivars but it is the only one that delivers spring, summer, and fall for me. It is pink in spring, summer green but new growth is peach/green, and fall is all fall colors in one. I don’t get many good fall colors in Atlanta. It is on the harder scale to propagate for bonsai though making it tricky.

Baton Rougue is another great one. It is a much heartier Sango Kaku. Easy to propagate and very vigorous.

Favorite dwarf is either Murasaki Kiyohime or Saiho. Never seen a Saiho bonsai but it is dwarf, vigorous, and upright with very small leaves. Rare to be upright with such a small leaf.

Deshojo is definitely up there, can’t argue. There are a lot of spring pink/red maples that are great like Deshojo, shine Deshojo, shin chisio, bonfire, Beni Maiko, corallinum, Akaji nishiki, and Seigen just to name a few.

Full moon maples are beautiful but the leaves are large for bonsai but I know Bill V. Has one.

 

[zanduh]

Mine is Corallinum. I have around 50 cultivars but it is the only one that delivers spring, summer, and fall for me. It is pink in spring, summer green but new growth is peach/green, and fall is all fall colors in one. I don’t get many good fall colors in Atlanta. It is on the harder scale to propagate for bonsai though making it tricky.

Baton Rougue is another great one. It is a much heartier Sango Kaku. Easy to propagate and very vigorous.

Favorite dwarf is either Murasaki Kiyohime or Saiho. Never seen a Saiho bonsai but it is dwarf, vigorous, and upright with very small leaves. Rare to be upright with such a small leaf.

Deshojo is definitely up there, can’t argue. There are a lot of spring pink/red maples that are great like Deshojo, shine Deshojo, shin chisio, bonfire, Beni Maiko, corallinum, Akaji nishiki, and Seigen just to name a few.

Full moon maples are beautiful but the leaves are large for bonsai but I know Bill V. Has one.

Corallinum looks really nice!
I have a shin chishio but it’s not going to be a bonsai for another 20 years since i bought it as a newly grafted stock.
Full moon leaves are so nice but yeah the size of the leaves is daunting. I have seen Bill V’s and it’s beautiful

 

[Johnnyd]

I agree with all the above comments regarding the red maples in the corallinum group. (Chishio, deshojo, Beni Mako)
Another interesting one is Beni hime. Kind of looks like a combination of koto hime and deshojo.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Favorite, which sadly did not live long in my collection, will get another, eventually. It tends to leaf out early in the well house, had to do the "In and Out Dance", missed getting it in, a late freeze damaged the tree, and later insults by a younger me meant it went into the next winter in bad shape. Will try again, now that I know more.

Acer palmatum 'Hime Shojo'

a dwarf with the "shojo" shade of red foliage all spring and summer, turning scarlet in autumn.

 

[LanceMac10]

I would consider a. Palmatum "Katsura" to be the #1 spring colored variety.

....#2...tsumi no gaki...

 

[LanceMac10]

deshojo is nice for sure....but just fades to burgundy/green....

katsura?...


variety,depth, sturdy...it'll last with good sun...

katsura always first riser...

 

[0soyoung]

The one in front of me now.

 

[River's Edge]

The one I just acquired. Acer palmatum Kihachijo
On its own roots, cutting grown!
Native Japanese maple from the Island of Hachijo Zone 6
Green deeply serrated leaves with narrow points. Small to medium leafs naturally!
Shorter internodes, smaller tree naturally!
Leaves turn yellow/red/orange highlights in the fall.
Bark turns white with striations with age!
Have not seen it as a bonsai, intrigued by the potential!

 

[AlainK]

I have quite a few maple cultivars, but not so many that I train as "bonsai".

'Deshojo', 'Shindeshojo' or 'Shojo hime' would certainly be among my favourites for bonsai.

'Orange Dream' and 'Katsura' are also very nice, but there are many criteria : leaf size, spring, summer and autumn colour : it's impossible to say. Just like when you have kids : which one do you prefer ? They all have their qualities, one is "better" than the other one day, and the next day it's different.

One of my favourite maple cultivar is "Tsuma gaki", which is never used as a bonsai.

 

[JudyB]

Actually I have a snake bark maple that has really good fall color, yellow orange red, and the bark is very interesting.

 

[Burt in SoCal]

Trident

 

[AlainK]

Actually I have a snake bark maple that has really good fall color, yellow orange red, and the bark is very interesting.

Is it a bonsai, or do you plan to make it a bonsai, or is ir potted or in your garden ?

I Have young "snake-bark maples" : Acer davidii, one from a friend with red young shoots, Acer cappilipes, and Acer rufinerve. It's a pity you live so far, I gave some away but I still have many left...

All these species have rather large leaves that can't be reduced as much as Acer palmatum 'Little Princess' or even the plain species of A. palmatum. I'd love to have a "snakebark" maple bonsai though, so I don't plan to trow them away - so far.

In any case, considering the size of the leaves, even if they are reduced to half their size, they could only be "large size bonsai".

12 years care and cultivation?...

I'll be (?) 77. Still young enough maybe

PS: I have to check, but I may also have one Acer rubescens which also has a white-striped bark.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Well, being from the Midwest, that’s a really tough question!

I guess I’d have to birdwalk this one and go by the seasons.

Deshojo etc, Coral Bark Maple and a new one I got this year Johnnies Pink for the early spring.

Late Spring to early summer it’s gotta be Katsura and Yuri Hime

Summer, but really a really finicky one, Butterfly

Fall... just about anything with brilliant color.

Yuri Hime early Fall
Finicky Butterfly in summer
Coral Bark Maple going into fall — it’s all about the bark

 

[AlainK]

tsumi no gaki

I think this is rather "Tsuma gaki" :

 

[AlainK]

Yuri Hime early Fall

From the glossary in Vertrees & Gregory:

hime : princess, pretty, little

All the maples in the "hime" series have small leaves. "Little Princess" is in Japanese "Mapi-no-machi hime".

There's also 'Kuro hime', 'Koto hime', etc. and they all have much smaller leaves than the plain species.

 

[zanduh]

I forgot to mention Beni Chidori which i would love but i’ve never seen one available in the US. If any of y’all have a cutting or pre-bonsai of that and/or Ice Dragon hit me up!

 

[LanceMac10]

I have quite a few maple cultivars, but not so many that I train as "bonsai".

'Deshojo', 'Shindeshojo' or 'Shojo hime' would certainly be among my favourites for bonsai.

'Orange Dream' and 'Katsura' are also very nice, but there are many criteria : leaf size, spring, summer and autumn colour : it's impossible to say. Just like when you have kids : which one do you prefer ? They all have their qualities, one is "better" than the other one day, and the next day it's different.

One of my favourite maple cultivar is "Tsuma gaki", which is never used as a bonsai.

I think this is rather "Tsuma gaki" :

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