I thought you all might like a new "angle" on my small Crimson Queen. The little tree is about 7 years old (for me) and is still no more than 2.5 feet tall. From the top, it is the typical mushroom shape, but I love its shape and branches from a different angle. Yesterday, was probably its peak of color, the sun was out and it glowed. Today is rainy and I'm traveling this week, so probably won't have a chance for more pics as the leaves change and fall off.
Hope you enjoy,
Laura
Here is the normal view:
When the tree is backlit, its shape shows up:
Another view to the sky:
And down the trunk and main branch
It's leaf tips got a bit scorched in the hot spell we had this summer.
One more pretty trunk shot:
As you can see, I love this little tree. I had to sit on the ground to get most of the pics, the neighbors probably thought I was a little bit crazy! The white planter is kept next to it to keep DH from running it over with the trash can on his way to the street...he is visually impaired and can't see it as it is too small. I may have to move in the next few years, a prospect which scares me! I am considering putting it with another maple that will get larger and provide it some shade, maybe Omure Yama as the colors would contrast. I welcome your thoughts.
Laura
Really nice shots Laura...It looks like a fairly low graft which "might" be the reason it is SO short ... I personally like low grafts best and have decided to all my grafts that way dissectum or not ( dissectums usually have high grafts 12-24")but haven't seen any evidence it creates smaller disectums unless you didn't stake it and even then it's spread should be much bigger .I like the low form of yours ALOT but it is NOT typical of a CC. At 7+ years I would condider it a dwarf dissectum and very unusual. It may well be a CC but it isn't your "fathers" CC .... David
I am also amazed it has stayed so small. Most I have seen at the garden centers are grafted a lot higher and are much, much taller. I did get it as a very young sapling, with only a few branches on it. It was a bit more than $20 when I bought it. It lost one major branch in the first year or two that I had it, I don't remember how, but probably got knocked by DH, and thus the pot to protect it now, along with a couple of solar path lights for night time. I keep the lower branches trimmed off the ground and occasionally thin out a few small branches in the center to allow the air to circulate, but I have never topped it (unless that first branch was the leader and that has somehow stunted it. For contrast, I planted this one, my Sangu Kaku, and Kagiri Nishiki at the same time. The coral bark is about 6-7 foot tall, and the other one is 8-10 feet tall. I knew this one would stay smaller, but not THIS small, lol. I have a neighbor down the street with a huge one that is probably a couple of decades old and I imagined this one would get that way.
Do you think it would do well in a container?
Here is a pic from spring, with my MIL's dog next to it, for size. You can see the coral bark in the background, it is about 20 feet away.
it could be containerized but I'd bet unlike the rest of the plant, it's root ball is likely gigantis rootialis ;>)!!! I figure it would be a" you know what" to move. It really looks like it needs something else around it . I think if it were of natural size that would not be the case...most CC grow 6-12" pr year as I understand it and my matching pair (although one is substatially bigger) grew big time this year ...their first full summer in the ground...I would suspect even a smaller planted 7 year old would be 4-6 ft tall and wide by now OR LARGER ... especially in your area ...not necessarily in other less JM friendly areas!!..isn't that what you thought and think ??? But I think either it is a feak of nature or just not a CC mistaged or whatever although it looks like one but there are so many similar ones. Since it looks extreemley healthy and REALLY a neat plant it seems unlikely to be an enviormental or fertilization thing IMHO... just either not typical or not a CC. David
I am reluctant to move it. I bet you are right about the root ball, but with our clay soil, you never know. Maybe the soil in that spot has made a bit of a bonsai of it. Moving it to a better place with better soil might give it an opportunity to grow more if it wants to. I bought it from a good nursery that carries a lot of JMs, and they are tagged on the trunk, not just a stick on the side of the pot, so I am pretty sure it is CC. If I decide to move it, will probably do so in early spring next year or the year after. I worry about it getting run over as DH's eyesight will only get worse and we need to put a sidewalk in about where it is located. It is a bit barren around it at the moment as I haven't planted any new flowers there this year, in anticipation of moving it. I can get some help from our lawn guy as he has a crew of guys and is pretty knowledgeable about planting things...I would do it except for the muscle part may be a bit more than I can handle. Now, if only I could decide where to put it! Hmm, maybe a large cedar wood planter that could double as a retaining wall near where the walk is needed to be....
I'll have to think on it some more.
Laura
It looks like it would "look" best on the edge of an already pklanted area or a water garten if you have on ...on top or a ledge or berm with other plants around it...now it's planted like a specimen plant and it doesn't look the part but I think you have the right idea...but containerising a older plant may be problematic ...I am not so sure that is is a good idea ...Todd seeems to do alot of cantainerizng since he's out of space maybe he would know ...my instinct tells me putting a younger plant in a container and making that it's home would be naturally better than taking a plant out of it's 7 year enviorins and doing it ...but JM's as we all know are tough trees in general especiall CC . David
Well, let's see what others have to say then! I'm certainly in no hurry.
Thanks for all the comments, I appreciate them.
Laura
It is very possible it could be dwarfed by the rootstock it is on, the planting site, culture, or simply that it might not be a Crimson Queen. One thing you can do to help the plant is to start pinching back some of the shoots on the dominant side. Your tree seems to be growing dominantly in one direction or to one side. Sometimes when this happens with dissectums it can slow the overall growth of the plant. Additionally, you seem to have the plant in a fair amount of shade, again this will slow the growth of a CC. While having a dissectum dominantly growing in one direction can be useful at the edge of a pond, wall, or border, you will be rewarded over time if you help it even out. You need to get some growth going the other direction so that if you have trouble with damge or disease on the dominant side the plant is not lost. A plant that size would do fine in a container and you could probably dig it and fit in a 20gal. can.
Cheers!
I've never taken out a tree and put it in a container, but I've moved fairly old larger trees without a problem. But there's no guarantee. I'm moving two trees this winter - but not into a pot.
Now I'm wondering about whether or not my CC (or what I thought to be a CC) is really a CC. It's been in the ground five years, in full sun, and not had that growth rate. And it's got a graft that's about 2' high.
Whatever it is it looks GREAT in that location.... in fact perfect IMHO ...I don't think you/d want a taller specimin there anyway. Although it is hard to tell size ffrom that pic it is definitly more "spread out" than Laura's and remember if you don't stake dissectums even high grafts they can be more spreading than upright. I assume your other dissectums ( the assumption is you have several others correct) under similar conditions have had greater growth rate??? Ryuzu may be right it may be, as well as Lauras, just on a dwarf RS or somehow be genectically inclined to be smaller ... I personally like BOTH trees and like Laura's asymetrical look even it it has effected the growth pattern as pr Ryuzu's comments...Yours though looks perfectly situated and you are LUCKY it is smaller IMHO ...but I still stand by my humble ;>) comments that Laura's would benifit from a differnt local , byut of course that is solely a personal opinion .David
I agree that I'm lucky. It may very well spread out of it's space but it hasn't shown any real sign of upward growth. It's probably 2 and a half feet tall currently. Let's hope my luck holds out! I am having to cut back growth that is too far out to keep it from getting too wide.
Perhaps a few well placed rocks could give Laura's tree a grounding sense of space? One thing that my tree man suggested in moving a tree that is already in the ground is to cut the roots where you are planning on digging on just two opposite sides and leave it a few months before you cut the other sides and take it out.
This message was edited Nov 13, 2006 10:26 AM
Doss, I love the location yours is in. The height helps us tall folks appreciate its beauty up close. I would like to have something like that arrangement for my little tree. As we implement our new landscaping plan, it does not yet have a spot appropriate to its stature. Is there a type of exposure to sunlight that this tree may benefit from? Morning/Afternoon...number of hours? I have some flexibility at the moment until I start planting my other maples in the spring of next year. The ones that are probably going into the ground are my Omure Yama, and Mizuho Beni. I also have a small Bloodgood and my Golden Full Moon Maple that will go in later after a deck is built.
Laura
