Japanese Maples: Show us your Japanese Maples!, 1 by Tau10

Tau10 wrote:
Doss, and Wha, thanks for the compliments on my CQ, I inherited it from an elderly woman that died, and for 2 years I guess it sat without any care, and when I examined it closer I saw one of the bigger branches had a break in it and the tree didn't look healthy at all, so I nursed it back to health. I am slowly pruning it back to reveal more of the beautiful branch structure. It looks so bad when bare because so many branches crossing over each other, too busy. Do you see the bottom of the trunk, called in Bonsai terms the Nebari? That was covered up by soil, so now people can enjoy that part too. It looks like an elephants foot doesn't it?

I put the other newly bought maple in a wooden planted, couldn't figure out why it was so darned heavy. Well whomever grew it and sold it to HD had it in a lot of clay soil, and that isn't a good soil for JM's. It had the burlap still wrapped up about 9 inches of the trunk, and it would have eventually rotted the trunk. then they put it in another big black planter and used that light potting soil that is used in nurseries without taking off the burlap. It sat that way long enough to have a lot of feeder roots growing out of the burlap and into the lighter soil, and out the bottom of the planter drainage holes.. I know I should have waited for the soil to dry out, but here in the Puget Sound we have been hit without some heavy duty rainfall and it's not going to stop anytime soon.