Something got one of my maples

I planted my maples back into the ground to make the trunks a little bigger before turning them into Bonsai, and something ate about half of it. Got my climbing Jasmin too. We shall see what comes out this spring, but I know I'm going to have to put it up where it can't get to it again. Usually a mountain beaver, but I haven't seen any burrows around. I've never had one of my Japanese maples eaten before, just my camellia.

pictures? could it have been a deer.

btw - are these maples grafted? i visited a bonsai place about a week ago and had the owner showed me the jm bonsai's - i mentioned i had a couple i was thinking to bonsai and his comment was that if grafted they would not look good so now i am reconsidering.

i also noticed that not all bonsai jm's are named at these places - they typically just are referred too as a jm - the ones they had with names where mountain maple, deshojo, and a cork bark maple that looked pretty cool.

A well grafted , very low grafted JM with same color root stock as scion tree in time is virtually indistinguishable ... look at any low grated JM after 5 years and you will hard pressed to see the graft . The reason this more honest person does not have named bonsai is because most are seed grown... and as stated many times they are not true to seed. Most folks sell bonsai seed grown trees as named cultivars which is pure crapolla since it is not that cultivar just a basic jm from a seed from that cultivar. Some folks do root naned cultivars but most cultivars do not root and as stated before the death rate is great sometimes severtal years after rooting which is very frustrating . The only reliable way of rooting is air layering which seems to work well with more cultivars and is used successfully in Japan for propagating sports and witch's brooms from mother trees. This process is VERY time consuming and no commercial grower would ever use it if he or she ever wishes to sell the end product asnd stay in buisness for more than one season because such air layered trees would be very expensive. Basically if you buy a named cultivar bonsai on line and it is not very expensive it is seed grown and if you pay more than a few $$ for a small one for it you are getting ripped off period. There is nothing wrong with buying a older JM Bonsai and paying more for it... but just remember you are getting a basic generic acer palmatum ..but there is nothing wrong with that since it may be many years old and super cool David(san)

thx david