Can anyone tell me how to grow a Japanese Fernleaf Maple in a container on my deck? My deck has no shade. I have a full-blooded Crimson Queen in my yard in full sun that's 4 x 8 x 12 . That one got me hooked on the Japanese Maples. I now have 4 more maples in various stages of growth. My Inabe Shidare is a 4- year old grafted tree and still in the container from the nursery. It looks so much like Crimson Queen it isn't funny. Could it be planted in a container and used on my deck? If so, how would I keep it small? I've kept it in full sun for two summers now, bringing it into my enclosed breezeway during the winter. If I kept it in a container on my deck all summer, would I have to bring it in each winter like I'm doing now? My deck is 2 &1/2 ft. off the ground so colder than normal ground temperatures would reach the roots if I left it outside.
I'm sure I should have asked more questions than I have, so if I needed to know more than this, please tell me. Thanks.
Japanese Fernleaf Maples grown in containers
pollyanna0102
I have had a Fernleaf in a container now for going on 3 years. It is doing great (although it is not in full sun--it's in AM sun and afternoon shade). I don't have a breezeway, so I actually haul the tree into the unheated and dark basement of an outbuilding at the end of the season, water it a couple of time over the winter, start bringing it back out during nice weather only in March and April. It has grown well and looks great.
I am a sucker for trees and I only have around an acre of land. I have now been reduced to growing small trees of all kinds in pots like this and keeping most of them on my back deck--which is full sun (but then we don't get that hot here--80 degrees is a heat wave).
I have several jap maples, as well as a hornbeam, a redwood (whoah--getting big on me), an elm, an Amur Maple, a snakebark maple, and an American Tupelo, a Gold Spot Cornus, Saris trees, among others. I sink their pots in the summer into larger (much larger) containers and then plant annuals around them. I have been doing this for years--and it saves money on annuals too!
Once the trees get much too big for my VERY BIG pots, I take them to my family's farm in Virginia and plant them there. As a result, the old farm has quite a few hard-to-find trees in the ground--everything from ginkos, to red beeches, to forest pansy redbuds, to very special evergreens, to Seven Sons Trees, and the list goes on.
Anyway, good luck.
Hi irmaly,
may I ask how big the pots are? My yard is small and I don't want to commit to any trees, so I am thinking of trying some in containers to give them a test run first. Double potting them with annuals around is a great idea, I bet it looks great. Rachel
Sidenote, I just love it up in Boone. I had no idea it was such a different zone! I went to ASU for a summer program when I was in High School and fell in love with the area. DH loves that Dan'l Boone Inn and we come to that Ghost Train in Blowing Rock and the outlet mall. Great place for a weekend getaway!
butterqueen,
Some of my pots are HUGE, and I use the trees as backdrops as opposed to in the center. I will try to get some pics and show you. Most are newly planted as we have to wait until we can be fairly sure we've had the last frost because once placed for the season it's near impossible to move them. But remember, we sink the tree pot. We leave to tree in a proper sized pot to accomodate its roots and then sink the tree bot into the huge pot. Cover with soil and then plant the annuals around. It LOOKS like the tree is planted in the huge pot, but it's actually in the smaller one. That means, come fall when all is said and done, we can simply lift out the tree in its smaller pot and store it.
This has worked out well for us in that our back deck is very sunny and the hottest place in our garden. The trees offer some shade and cool things off quite a bit.
Of course some trees are more tolerant of this abuse than others, but I haven't lost one yet.
Boone is a great place, but it's growing mighty fast. And the winters can be a bear. Some list us as a zone 6a, but plants good to that zone will bite the dust in a bad winter. I tempt the zone sometimes, but not with trees.
Hi Irmalay. You have a great assortment of trees! So far, my "exotic trees" are the fernleaf maple, mimosa, and golden raintree, although I do have three redbuds, too. Those redbuds and mimosas sure are prolific! We get to -0 sometimes in Southern Ohio, and up to 100+ in the summer. so I have to be careful what I use. We have 5/8 an acre, but I have many of trees of all sizes. The big ones are 80 to 100 ft (maple and sycamore) and we also have black locust, pine, hickory, pecan and walnut, but the pecans are from Lousianna and make the papershell, and they are only about as long as the end of the first digit of your finger. Cute as can be. They are edible, too. I'll keep the fernleaf maple in the pot and like you say, just bring it in every winter like I have been doing. It's worth the trouble! Maybe I'll just add the green ones, too.
I'll have to study a tree book to know what other trees I'd like to experiment with. I didn't know the names of most of the ones you mentioned!
Pollyanna
Pollyanna,
YES!! The golden raintree. I have a very small one in a pot on the back deck. We visited Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and instead of buying a tee-shirt as a reminder of our visit, we bought a seedling of a tree that Jefferson first brought to Virginia. I love it.
I am a sucker for trees of all kinds (thank goodness my parents have plenty of property in VA so I can finally find a place for them). This year, we were sad to lose a 100 year old maple here at our Boone home. We have worked to save this tree now for going on 20 years, but this year, it bit the dust. It is going to be very sad to lose it--we are having it taken down in a few weeks, but another window has opened.
We have badly wanted a London Plane Tree now since we first saw them in Philadelphia, http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/977/index.html but they are so large we had no place to put one. NOW WE DO!
Then there was the problem in locating a decent sized one at a reasonable distance from here. We finally found one about an 1 1/2 hour away from here, and we plant to bring it here and plant it in the fall.
Okay, following are a few shots of some of the trees "sunk" into other pots for the summer. Remember, we have only had these pots made up for about 3 weeks since we are in danger here of a late frost. I will update once the pots really get going. This first one is an Amur Maple. Once the coleus in the back gets its wind, this pot should be a real riot of color!
Here's the snakebark maple. It was just a treeling when I put it in around 4 years ago. Again, need the coleus needs to get its groove.
And last for today (it's started raining now), here's the little Jefferson raintree we bought at Monticello.
Great pics, Irmaly! My Golden Raintree (s) got so big I had to put them into the ground finally and they have bloomed twice. They are about 15 feet tall now. I love them! We need a 100' tall maple taken down and all them tree trimmers look at it and leave. No one will give us an estimate! The guy across the street who used to take down trees for the power company said it would cost over $1200. I think we'll just wait for a big storm now.
I like the pots you have your trees in, too, by the way.
I checked out the London Plane Tree. I can see why you like it. Looks like a good shade tree, too.
pollyanna, no joke. We are paying right at $1,000 to have the maple removed. We almost dropped our teeth. BUT, we had another old maple that we let go too long and last year, during sudden and powerful spring winds the tree split wide open and crashed down on our pergola on one side and the road on the other side. If this one falls, it will do serious damage to the house and perhaps to passersby on the road. Not only is it depressing to lose the tree, but it's mighty depressing on the pocketbook as well.
I envy you your rain tree. I am urging mine to grow, grow, grow.