Need Japanese Maple ID help, continued: JM No. 4 leaf

Need Japanese Maple ID help, continued: JM No. 4 leaf

could be beni shishishenge would need to see the leaf color in the spring.

as no doubt you will learn here it is difficult to accurately get a 100% accurate id. it would be helpful to know how you came to have the tree. did you lose the tag, buy it without a tag, or was it a seedling. if it is a seedling it will not have an id, it is a mongrel with a pretty leaf shape.

Thanks for the suggested ID, wha. I am hoping to get further IDs from the place where the JM was purchased. Bene shishishenge sounds familiar--I think my friend mentioned this name once, but she gave me the JMs without tags.

As said many times it is not possible tpo Id 99% of trees .. for those new to collecting KEEP TAGS ON .. and if planting out make a map and scan it into your friggin computer .. tags will break fall off or become unreadable you will never remember them and it is a waist of our time to even try to ID them . If you get a plant without a tag get a new one and put it on you should be able to do so by process of illumination from what you boughtt ... EASY if done right away ... If a seller sells you all untagged trees best to deep six them since they are selling you nothings.and are not trusteed sellers never buyn from themk again even if they are CHEAP ... the olsd saying youn usually get what you pay for. Davidsan

David it sounds like her friend simply gave her these trees and never saved the tags - she paid $0 so it is a GREAT deal! - And as the trees mature and ID will happen.

she will never id these trees to100%certainty, those folks at the essense of trees won t you won't and I wont it will be just a guess even Buchholz won't .. ain't gonna happen no way now no way in future ... yoiu might have an idea but you will never be certain ... when I loose a tag my trees go into a special area of unknowns ...I certainly would not sell them as otherwise. This is a discussion that can't be won and it constantly waists all of our time guessing it is absolutely a fact that you can never be sure 100% except with very few trees that are totally different which none of these are... You put a bloodgood and emperor1 together along with a bunch of other good reds and I defy you or anyone else top defintitly id them .. it ain't possible .. you night be 95% on some but never 100%. if she got them for zip then bully .... be happy with what she has and enjoy them. what they are called will not happen and it will just drive her and us crazy. There are lots of things we can help folks with and yes this forum is dead but futile searches are not helping ...Maybe there is just enough info on the internet that these forums are a bit obsolete .. at least in the case of Jms .. others seem to thrive Davidsan

I am very sorry to have caused so much trouble. Being relatively inexperienced with the infinite world of JMs, I hadn't realized that making an ID would be so difficult. I can see how complicated it is now. My main reason for asking was to see if I could figure out the growth patterns from an ID so I could plant the JMs in the right spot. I haven't near back from Essence of the Tree Company yet--they may be having the same sort of difficulty in ID-ing their original trees! ;-)
Anyway, thanks to everyone who took the time to educate me on the complexity of the trees and give some suggestions.

It's understandable that you asked for ID's in the JM forum Cape Cod. We understand. I can certainly see that you would like to find out what they are since you need to decide where to plant them. Some of them can get pretty big and some don't like afternoon sun. Did your friend have them in specific places on her patio? That might help you figure out where to plant them. Do remember that when you plant a maple that has been in a pot that the maple will get substantially bigger when it's roots have room to spread out.

you really caused no trouble ...you didn't know ... most folks don't realize there are more than 500 varieties of Jms many similar in groups of 20 or so... iding most is impossible ( likely 300+ are somewhat available mostly on the web except for west coast somewhat in south and south east coast . Most folks have NO access to these trees other than the web and most etailers sell twigs .that are easy too ship.. .. Add that to the fact that 99% of all folks in the Usa think that there are only two Jms bloodgood and crimson queen or as they will say"that there lacey leaf " or "that there nice taller red one" ;>) andf of course they want to pay $10 for a ten gal tree 98% don't even know their names . ... maybe someone should post a sticky on Id'ing these as being visually impossible ... and many folks want us to id old trees that likely are not grafted or any specific cultivar .. they love there tree or a neighbors and want another one or one for themselves.. what this does is folks want to help and trow out a bunch of maybe's which is a waist of time and energy ... You folks should all consider yourselves special . Unlike the hosta , rose and other folks you are a very small group of addicts that are involved in a very small part of the plant world...most Americans know squat about. that doesn't make you better than them just special because your knowledge, if you stick with it you will get the knowlede, and it will be morewill be more than 99% of anyone else s on these very special trees. When folks come to see my hundreds of different Jms they are astonished and somewhat in disbelief that this is possible it is like they are visiting another planet...to them it is like overwhelming ... choosing a Jm is almost as hard as Iding them well not really but you get my point.... and remember there is NO perfect Jm ... some may work better in certain locations than others but perfect is for the dead ...living things are not perfect ..nothing in the living world is perfect. if you are that ilk start doing bonsai ... you will find happiness in that minutia ..and good luck ...even the word bonsaigives me the hebe gebees ... but different strokes for different folks .. I love the on going "finishing" never ending product cause its a life long obsession.... just DEFINITELY not for me. ;>) Davidsan

Thank you so much, doss and Davidsan. I heard yesterday from helpful Tricia Smyth at Essence of the Tree, where the JMs in question were purchased, and she has been able to give me some IDs based on the original invoice. I will post the info when I have a chance, just to let you all know that there has been some progress.
Doss, I appreciate your advice that my presently-petite little JM scan get much larger when their roots have a chance to spread out! That's the reason I was eager to ID these trees before planting them out. That, and respecting the sun and other cultural requirements.
Davidsan, thanks for taking the time to educate me, because in my ignorance I really had no idea that there were so MANY varieties. I have about ten different ones planted in the ground, plus the aforementioned ones that I received in pots. Some are just beginning to show their glorious autumn tints. But my goodness, I am going to preserve those IDs that I have managed to collect from now on!
Anyway, thanks for your patience.

How wonderful that Essence of the Tree was able to help you. You'll have a lot better idea where to put them now that you have the ID's! You should send photos when you get them installed.

Is there a good web site that would list JMs along with description and photo? I've tried using the PlantFiles here, but often don't get the right 'hit' - got a bunch of scratch-n-dent trees for free and trying to figure out what their general habit is so I can plant them accordingly. None of course have leafed out yet so more difficult. Some are just labeled 'green' or 'red' which is helpful and I'll just plop them somewhere I don't really care about a specimen. Most are going in my pasture and edges of forest for little spots of color, so not necessary to accurately ID.

Nevermind the above post. I didn't realize I could list just Japanese Maples and get an alphabetical listing in the PlantFiles, which is very helpful.

UBC Botanical is a great site for JMs too. They have an extensive picture gallery for acers.