Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: small maples, 1 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
Hi. Just noticed this.

I am on my second acer griseum. I found them potted at Milaegers in Racine in 1999 ago - for $35. About 5 feet tall. Single stem. They couldn\'t sell them, so I got one for $17.50. Wow, what a tree. I had a single stem, and I read that it grows only four inches a year, but I found it grew much faster, and has the capacity to grow at twice that rate if you keep it decently watered and fertilized.

Here it is ten years later, in 2009, in the first two pictures. The third picture is in the fall of 2008.

I was so sad at leaving it behind I bought a new one, a multistem (both are great!) for $328 - about 8 feet tall. I have seen ones the size of my new one for three times that price. Both the multistem and single stem are great. There is a claim (I think by Michael Dirr) that no two of these trees is the same. It\'s zone 4, and the exfoliating bark begins at a very young age. It ignored winters here where the temps reached 40 below.

I highly, highly, highly recommend it. Dirr says that if it were more widely available, it would be in every garden. I don\'t know about that - I never see them. They are expensive because they are extremely difficult to propagate and grow slowly, although as you can see from my ten years of growth that it\'s not necessarily the case, and I have noticed in some publications that if you care for them they grow much faster.