My maple clumps

[apr]

Like many, I really enjoy clump style maples.

Repotted a few trident saplings today.



Positioned them as best I could and secured with wire. I won't touch these for a few years to allow proper fusion and ground layering to give me a better nebari.



Must be a good method to secure these better in the basket. I would have preferred to just let them fuse before wiring any movement but they are already getting lignified (snapped one a bit).



I've tried to have the fusion starting below the soil - sticking the wire into the soil and getting it around the trunk is awkward and seems to push the trunks apart a bit, so some learning with this technique.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I've found that increasing the number of plants also tends to increase my success rate.
After some years, a couple will die from whatever cause and I'd be left with a twin trunk instead of a clump. It's worth overthinking if you want to go the same route. Or chop one down really low, so you end up with more trunks from the base, that's also an option. Not for me though, mine are all conifers.

 

[apr]

Yeah I agree. Access to cheap saplings is an issue for me at the moment.

I can get hold of palmatum saplings around 4.50 each, but for several clump projects this soon racks up.

I am keen to try fusing some saplings together to create a thick trunk more quickly, but I'd need lots for this.

I have tried growing from seed with poor success, only a handful of trident or palmatums germinated from 300 seeds, so I probably need a better supply.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

My tridents took another year to germinate. I don't know why that happened, but half of my seeds stayed dormant for the whole summer of 2024 only to germinate in spring 2025.
I've heard it's easy to take cuttings of young material but I haven't tried.