The 10 m tree I was referring to was a horse chestnut :-) The oaks that barely grow here don't look anything like the majestic oaks in Europe :-) They are fairly new in cultivation so it remains to be seen how they'll age ...... it'll be interesting to see. I don't think anyone expected the horsechestnuts to grow to 10 m or flower when they were first planted some 60 years ago.
Winter is here - and so is the snow ! This is what we woke up to this morning :-)
Horse chestnut of 10m, so you can have big trees there, wonderful. It will be interesting how big the oaks will get.
Nice snow, feel like jumping in and making snow angels :o))
It doesn't look like you will be doing much gardening now Rannveig. Our weather has turned horrible tonight and it has forecast sleet and snow on high ground - which could mean us. I doubt whether we'll get so much though. It does look lovely when it has just fallen but usually just goes slushy and melts here.
Pat we get a lot of slush here too and I hate it - but it seems that this snow will stick around for at least a week - it's supposed to get colder again. This time my plants are nicely tucked in a blanket of snow so I have no worries :-) No more gardening for me until spring I guess. I wasn't even done raking the leaves ..... oh well - I'm always unprepared. I'll finish cleaning it up during the next thaw we get .... the snow won't last until spring.
Okay - here goes first try at posting a photo
A round of applause for that - I can't tell you (too embarassed!) how many hours I have spent trying to figure this out. Goodness sometimes I do feel - shall we be polite and say 'slow'.
This is in reply to Wallaby request for a picture of the colouring. Taken last Friday morning. It really was a beauty. Sorry - it was Rannveig who asked.
This message was edited Nov 20, 2006 5:42 AM
This message was edited Nov 20, 2006 5:43 AM
Yay Laurie (applause) !!!!!! That is so pretty! What a gorgeous view! Great photo :-) Thanks for posting it!
What a beautiful view Laurie. I've just spent half an hour trying to put a couple of photos on mainly because they vanished when I down loaded them from my camera. ~What fun technology!
Here is a photo I've taken this morning of my Acer "Bloodgood". The leaves are dropping fast this week. It was covered last week.
They are such beautiful trees, and sometimes I can't decide which I like better, the red leaves on the tree, or those that fall onto the grass. They make such a stunning contrast against the green.
You look to be in a very peaceful location Laurie, a rolling hillock behind you, I bet you get some wildlife there. Congratulations on the 'first post'! If you have a newer computer it is very easy, when I used an old one it was a very lengthy process to find out, then forget and have to find out again!
Pat it's good to see an Acer alive and growing in the ground, so many seem to get killed off in their younger years.
I have one doing well in a pot which I bought a few years ago as a young plant, they were in 9cm pots and turning colour. This was the only one that had a vivid red glow so I had to buy it! I will try to find a place in the ground for it soon, it should live now and is outgrowing it's pot. I would love to try a Bloodgood though. I have managed to grow a few of A. 'osakazuki' from seed, many others I tried just didn't grow or died once they did.
I took this on 28th Oct., they are gone now.
Pat, that Acer 'Bloodgood' is stunning! What a wonderful color contrast! Is it a japenese maple cultivar?
It is Acer palmatum which is I think a Japanese one, but grows larger than the dissectum varieties. It must be about 20 years old now, but for the first few years after I planted it out the frost killed all its new shoots off so it grew very slowly. Now we usually get a keen frost just when its new leaves come out, but it is more resilliant now and just loses the tips.
I have tried growing the coral bark maple Sango Kaku but it didn't get through the winter and only the bit below the graft survived. and I also lost the one with bright green leaves which are pleated like a fan, both of which were rather expensive, so I haven't tried them again. They were both in containers and in a fairly sheltered spot. I had better success with an Acer dissectum cultivar which was in the reject section at the garden centre. It has survived two winters and is a good bronze colour with deeply divided leaves and a nice domed umbrella shape - it only cost £6 as well.
I had an Sango-kaku from Norfields where I got the seed from, it was grafted and I kept it in a shaded greenhouse but something seemed to be wrong with the root systems on many of their plants, I lost a few that just didn't want to grow. I tried the A dissectum viridis from seed, some germinated then died, so did others. I've tried several lots of seed and Osakazuki is the only one which was successful but it is said to be easy.
I did get a dwarf grafted A. Red Dragon which is a nice dissectum, but mine is never as red as I have seen some. It has grown well though, still in a pot. I still want the viridis but for now am happy to have what I have, I'm sceptical of getting one which is properly grown.
Dang it, now I will have to hunt for them again!
I'm surprised to hear that you've had trouble growing the A. palmatum varieties - I thought they grew well in the UK. I have an A. palmatum atropurpureum which is now spending it's second winter outside. Last winter was unusually mild, but this one is off to a very cold start so it'll be interesting to see how it'll come out next spring. There was hardly any dieback last year - it really surprised me how well it did. I do cover it up to give it shelter from the cold winds - it was very expensive so I wouldn't dare leave it out on it's own devices ..... those winter winds can be very harsh! I saw another cultivar at a nursery this spring that had very pretty bicolored foliage - I think it was light green with red edges. I really wanted it too - but I haven't been able to think of where to put it and ....... it was expensive. Can't remember what the name was of that cultivar ...... I might succumb to temptation one day and get it ......
When Acer palmatums are young they are very susceptible to strong winds of any sort, even warm winds can kill them when the foliage is young. I had a small one from a supermarket which looked to be doing well, I hadn't put it outside until it was warm and even then in a sheltered spot near the house. A strong wind on a warm day scorched the new folliage, from that point it just gave up.
Perhaps your cool summers suit it rannveig, although ours are often cool we do sometimes have slightly hotter weather. Any I have got since I have kept them in a shady greenhouse until they had some size, even in summer.
Take a good look at what the plants are grown in before you spend a lot of money, if grown in peat they might die eventually as they don't make proper roots.
Katsura has red edges, hold the arrow over the pics to get the names
http://www.acer-palmatum.de/album/body_album.html
Thanks for the link wallaby - there are so many pretty ones! It might well have been Katsura. One of the photos of a green leaved one was named atropurpureum, which can't be right - mine has dark burgundy foliage all summer. I noticed that it doesn't like wind the first summer I had it, the foliage got damaged but didn't do it any real harm though - just didn't look as nice. I overwintered it in my greenhouse the first two winters. Now it has shelter from the north-wind and did fine this summer - no wind damage at all. If it comes out alright after this winter it should do fine here - cause so far it's gotten about as cold as it gets here, down to -13C I think. I'm very hopeful, I love japanese maples and never dreamed I could grow them in my garden ...... it's supposed to be a greenhouse plant here :-) Another good thing about it is that it leaves out very late so despite quite a few hard freezes in April and May it went unscathed while the buds on the Rhododendrons were damaged.
