A.p. 'Fairyhair' and A.p. 'Baby Lace'

Does anyone have either of these? I'm thinking of adding them to my small collection in 2008 but they only seem to be available as 2-year grafts, I have not even seen anything larger anywhere on the internet. I would like to hear others' impressions before I plunk down the change on them! Both would be container planted. The very small collection I have includes the following (provided they are all still alive in my garage!):

A.p. 'Murasaki kiyohime'
A.p. 'Ukigumo'
A.p. 'Beni schichihenge'
A. p. 'Ariadne'
A. p. 'Emerald lace'
A. p. 'Jerre Swartz'

I will probably put the 'Beni schichihenge' and 'Ukigumo' in the ground this year, possibly the 'Emerald lace' as well. I purchased them as babies last fall and container planted them. I think they need larger root balls before facing winter outside all by themselves, as I'm in zone 5.

I put a photo of a large 'Baby Lace' in the Plant files. I bought a very small one last spring and lost it due to temperature differences (it had been brought in for a show and then went out, then back in...too much change). I bought another small one last fall after the leaves came off.

The large one was at a local nursery and quite lovely in the spring, like clouds of leaves. I think this tree was high grafted, but it's been so long that I don't remember. I know that I could hardly keep my hands off it and if I see another large one, I'll be sorely tempted.

Laura

I have all of these except JS and AR and BL ...

#1 BL and FH should be kept cantaierized in your area permantly IMHO... they are both known for their fragility... also both should be in almost complete shade especially the FH...Mine did not fare well with even a few hours of direct sun past about july 1st. Many folks lost JS last spring but that was a 1 in 50 year freeze... and most dissectums succummed!!! or were severly damaged ..So be VERY careful with it.

I would say the EL is one of the hardier dissectums and is one I would think you could plant out in a protected spot. The Ukigumo is a really nice HARDY tree it gets a thumbs up but don't expect it to look like the pics in catalogues , at least right away, mine after two years only shows sand dusting!!....

AR is known to be fragile but I don't understand why ...but I'd be careful ...I think the MK will do fine and seems very hardy...The beni I haven't had long enough to give an educated guess ...

SO keep FH,BK, potted permantly .... be VERY careful with placement of JS and AR if you plant out .... MK .UK, El go for it but use caution as with any JM .... Remembering all the time you are a bit colder than me so use common sense...None of these trees are optimum for YOUR area even less than even mine except UK and probably MK ....compound that with buying baby plants and you'd better have a good handle on their care and a bit of luck .

..I personally wouldn't have started out or recommend a beginner to start out with any of these trees in your area or mine ....and never with baby grafts!!.. but I am just guessing you are in the beginning stages of JM'dom if not and you have experience this would not necessarily be the case ...But I would still be a little leary and not have a hissy fit if they don't make it .

..and being a good gardiner does NOT olone make anyone an expert at JM's especially in your or my areas!!! .What grows like weeds in Doss's part of the county have to be really babied here. I know i was hit hard last spring and if you can't take the losses either monitarily or emotionally you'd better have a good supply of anti depressants or valium and a good banker ....David

I would also be careful with ANYONE adv 2 year old grafts ...that shouild mean they have had two FULL growing seasons under thier "belts" NOT the fall or winter or spring after the first year as many sell them as..,. A 2 year old should have been grafted in winter spring of '06 if you are buying NOW or NEXT SPRING. There are several etailers that have larger older trees at reasonable prices...feel free to email me directly and I can give you some names. David

Not to monopolize this post but I saw your post at GW ...I will say it is highly unlikely any of the Fairy Hairs are actually 2's ...they have only become available anywhere last spring..Stanley had some one gals. for a while which may have been two year grafts but all the ebay stuff was first year grafts.last summer..Herter had some last winter that might have been grafted spring of 06 and now be 2 years but I can't believe he has any left...it is possible but unlikely ... same with Baby Lace except from one grower I know who has some two gals..Baby Lace seems to be a toiuchy plant and the several times i have "tried' to buy it, the growers did not feel comfoertable seeling them to me with the stock they had or how well they would make it through their winter ( I was buying in the winter) out west..but anything is possible... David

This message was edited Jan 20, 2008 12:04 PM

This message was edited Jan 20, 2008 12:07 PM

Thanks for the feedback and tips. Not all of my JM's are complete babies, I purchased the Murasaki kiyohime, Ukigumo and Emerald Lace as 2-3 year old grafts. The rest were 1 year old grafts. I purchased them from a vendor with 100% positive feedback, so I'm not too worried that they were mis-advertised. The vendor has a very detailed description on his website of how the ages are classified, and the 1-years were grafted in early 2006. They all go through one full winter after grafting before being considered 1-year grafts.

I would like to hear about possible options for vendors of the Baby Lace and Fairyhair because the person I purchased my grafts from last October does not sell either of these varieties. Klehm's Song Sparrow sells both and when I emailed them earlier last week the reply stated that they were two year old grafts. The Baby Lace is marked as $75.00 and Fairyhair is $49.95. I actually asked if older specimens were available and they said "no." Klehm's has a few other things that I would like (conifers and a ginkgo that are also hard to find) so I was thinking of placing the order from them.

For the long term, I do intend to keep most of my maples in containers. I posted a long-winded description of my container ambitions on the conifers forum on GF; distilled, I plan to live in this house for another 5 or so years and want to take as many of my harder to find (and expensive) plants with me as possible. There are a few bare spots that need something, hence my willingness to plant the Emerald Lace, Ukigumo and BS (maybe) in those spots. I know these varieties are not very hard to find as older specimens, I figure that if I truly love them I can always buy older specimens for my next house! We have a lot of shade, in fact about half of our lot is in what I consider full shade most of the day.

My detached, unheated garage is now a haven for the container plants. I have full spectrum lighting in there for spring and there are several windows that offer natural light. There appears to be about 1 1/2" of a dried up part on the tip of a branch of my MK, and the Ukigumo was not looking too great to start with, but otherwise everything seems to be doing fine. I know that purchasing babies was not the most steady approach if I wanted a guarantee, but I did not spend much on them and the choices locally are very slim pickings. Only the most common varieties are carried in local nurseries and exorbitantly priced at that. Essentially, if two of my babies survive from the six that I purchased, I am financially well ahead of purchasing one larger specimen locally. I guess we'll see what happens though.

I don't intend on ordering any more babies until I see how these six fare, but am starting to think about what maples I would like to add in 2008. It seems that Fairyhair and Baby Lace are hard to find so I'm wondering if I want to pre-order them soon. Also, they are both quite a bit more expensive than any of the babies I bought last year (the most expensive baby was $37.50 and most were in the mid-$20's range) so I appreciate all the information provided here.

I would wait until spring and see what dealers have ...the price on the BL is high IMHO for that age...if the FH is actually a two that is a good price but I will tell you it will be small . I think around march or April most dealers will know what they have not wholesaled out and the condition of particular trees and you may get a better price as well as a better tree..

. I think it's a bit chancy for either of these trees in the long run even contaierised so you don't want to pay too much or get too puny of a plant ...graft age is important but getting a photo of what you will be buying is best...especially in the over 70$$ range.and especially with slow growing smaller trees like these..

The growers I have talked to as I said are a little shy about BL... and one has had NO luck with FH... so either is a ??? as far as long time survival ... as i said My FH took a beating last summer in mostly shade up here in IL although I love it and would not ever say not to get it,,I would be VERY careful with it ...it was stupendous til July!!!! the BL is on my list to get but it must be both a nice specimen and not too pricey ...so far I have not found any that fit that.

The best way to buy JM's is to get a working personal relationship with a grower/retailer or someone who works there and if not ask for photos and as much info as you can ...now you won't get this with 20$$ trees it's just NOT worth the sellers time for such small $$$ but you should with 75$$ +++ ones...caliper size and branching are often much more important than "just" age...photos can tell you alot ...a person you trust can tell you even more...David

Mine are purchased locally, so cannot advise on a good source.

My experience with those listed is limited. Locally, only Ukigumo and Beni Schichihenge are grown. I have a Ukigumo growing in a pot for the last 2 years. I got it as a one-year graft. Beni is among our largest JM locally but I must admit, is quite a beauty despite the fact that I don't personally have one (too big for my ever-crowded garden). Both do fine in zone 5.

Ihave a new fairy hair but and it did well in deep but dappled shade under an oak tree last year. Of course our climates aren't the same at all and it's spending it's first winter here out under the tree. It's like nothing else if you can grow it.

"fairy hair but" ...is this a new variety should I say a "witches" - broom of Fairy Hair;>) as a person who does this also Often and is known for multiple typos and misplaced words I just couldn't help...HUMMM I guess the old expression as thin as the hair on a fairy's ...Or a Witch sweeping the floor with a fairy's back side. of course it's missing a "T" but sounds funny reading it.... I couldn't resist David

This message was edited Jan 21, 2008 5:39 PM

This message was edited Jan 21, 2008 11:40 PM

OH what a silly typo. LOL I sure understand why you couldn't resist. I'm getting a pretty good laugh out of my own typo too. Thanks David.

Well, I ended up placing my order yesterday from Klehm's after all. Received a very nice phone call today from the company letting me know that my order would be shipped the week of May 12 and everything I ordered is in stock. I'll update this thread when my order arrives!

Elizabeth

Good luck. Which ones did you end up ordering? Both of them?

Elizabeth... Klehm's prices aren't the cheapest, but the JM's come out of the box looking like they just put them in an hour earlier... amazing.
Don

I ordered both the 'Baby Lace' and 'Fairyhair'. Don, your response is what I pretty much understand to be true from other Klehm's customers as well. I ordered a few other things too - a ginkgo biloba 'majestic butterflies', a picea glauca 'j.w. daisy white', a picea glauca 'rainbow's end', and a magnolia 'kiki's broom'. I selected the 3-day delivery option. This morning (less than 12 hours after I placed my order online), I received a phone call from Klehm's letting me know when my shipping date would be AND the rep told me that they were going to remove the extra charge for 3-day shipping because regular shipping from WI to IA usually only takes 2 days. I asked if everything is in stock and she told me that everything is. I consider that excellent service!!!

I'm hoping my plants will be as good as the service thus far : )

Elizabeth

I look forward to pictures of your new trees when they arrive.

:-)