One of my Japanese Maples slow to bud & leaf out.

I have several Japanese maples. They are all leafing out nicely, except Beni Tsukasa. It is leafing out very well on the bottom one third of the tree, but very slow above that. Could it be because it's taller and narrower, so it takes time for it to get the sap that far up? It was protected in the winter.

Do the upper branches look different in any way from those that are leafing out?

You might try scratching the bark near the top and see if there's still green under there--if not then it could be dead. I know you said you protected it for the winter, but that's exactly how I've seen trees behave when they got cold damage over the winter. Sometimes the top will eventually come around and leaf out, but sometimes it won't, depends on how badly damaged it got.

Hi ecrane3 & Galanthophile,

Some of the upper branches are white looking and brittle. . They are very fragile looking up there. After slightly scratching one of the upper " red" colored branches, it does look green under the surface on those. . After reading both of your posts, I think I may have lost 1/3 to 1/2 of the top growth. I'm hoping as time goes by the tree will acclimate to survive here. It is probably a stretch in my climate, Mid Illinois. Thanks so much for your input. Now I have an idea of what to expect, and work to save it.
Sarah

Good luck! They are such lovely trees, it's worth the effort.

I'm in 4a and have two bloodgood red maples, neither look great, but one sounds a lot like yours. I'm going to wait it out and see what comes back then trip back the dead branches. It's heartbreaking to see them suffering so.

Hi wadeinthewater,
The year we bought the Bloodgood, it was about 5-1/2 feet tall leafed our beautifully. Then we had a very late freeze. Every leaf dropped off! We went to the nursery where we bought it, explained the situation. The owner told us to give the tree a regular dose of Miracle Grow and the leaves would come back quickly. At the time it seemed counter intuitive, but I followed his instructions because the tree had no leaves left anyway. They popped back very quickly. I have toyed with that idea where this Beni Tsukasa is concerned, but I'm not that brave now.

quaintcharm - I lost the top 2/3 of both a Sekimori and a Viridis to last winter's cold. The bottom 1/3 of both leafed out vigorously but the tops proved to be deader than a door nail. Since both of these trees were over 5' they looked pretty bad when pruned back to live wood. I just replaced them yesterday with more cold tolerant JM cultivars - Kamagata, Higasayama and Stella Rosa. I'm not getting any younger and the prospect of waiting for them to recover while I'm alive, only to be possibly clobbered again in the future by a nasty cold spell, wasn't something I wanted to put up with.

Acer palmatums which did prove to be cold hardy and survive relatively unscathed were Ukigumo, Beni hime, Koto hime, Purple Ghost, Butterfly and Shirazz. With the exception of Shirazz, all were somewhat protected from sweeping winds by privacy fences but not from the cold temps. Shirazz was a stunning trooper through the very harsh winter. It is in a fully exposed position with full sun and no wind protection what so ever. I didnt have to prune off more than 2" here or there of dead branch tips and very few of those. It's leafing out now and the hot pink and magenta spring leaves are stunning. I highly reccommend this JM for us cold zone (5) northern gardeners. The only "special" care I give it is to make sure through supplemental watering that it receives STEADY moisture through the growing season. On well drained soil that means 1" water per week, EVERY week. In wetter conditions, which JM's don't like anyway too much moisture could be a killer. So, know your soil.

Hi Snapple,
I appreciate your recommendation of hardy Japan Maples . I noticed "Purple Ghost" is on your list. I have that one, and you are right, it does really well here- no winter damage, and I don't need to use winter protection on it. Butterfly does really well here, also. My neighbors over 15 foot tall Beni Otake died this winter.It has been growing beautifully there for 17 years or so. The bark just began to peel off until it was gone. It was in an ideal sheltered location. I will keep the cultivars you have mentioned in mind, , especially Shirazz, if I end up having to replace the Beni Tsukasa. I will mention Shirazz to my neighbor, also. We will both miss her beautiful and graceful tree.

Losing a 15' Beni Otake is terrible. I lost an Inaba Shidari at about 8' to frost bark split. That was because of a late spring hard freeze in April 2007 when temps dipped to 19° after about two weeks of day and night temps above 50°. I thought that was bad. Japanese Maples are certainly tempermental. My husband can't believe why I keep replacing them. I'm trying hard to get a small collection going that prove as durable for zone 5 as they are beautiful.

Snapple, I lost MANY JM's during the terrible late frost a couple springs ago, including Beni hime, Butterfly, Osakazuki and Koto hime.
Osakazuki and Butterfly were both 15ft trees. I lost a 15ft Higasayama also.
I've read about certain cultivars more cold hardy than others, but cold hardiness has two aspects.
First, is the traditional wintertime hardiness.
But equally important, at least in midwestern climates, is how early the tree leafs out.
Maybe the trees I lost were adequately winter-hardy, but they leafed out too soon, thus vulnerable to the late frosts.
I'm sure siting factors, soil, and overall health of the plants play role also.

By the way, my acer japonicums did much better - I only lost one of them.
My experience w/ palmatums was sufficiently sobering that I've (almost) given up on them.
The carcasses still stand as silent memorials.
I kept hoping they might resprout, but I've now come to my senses and will remove them this spring.
I'll stick w/ japonicums and shirasawarums.

snapple 45 & weerobin,
Lisa, my neighbor and I noticed alot of heaving this winter from cycles of extreme melting and freezing again. A few plants were pushed right up out of the ground. We think that might have been the problem with her Beni Otake. Snapple mentioned, frost crack is another big problem. I lost an umbrella grafted weeping Higan to tha last year. There seem to be layers of survival levels to keep some varieties of Japanese Maples going. I think the worst part is not expecting it, after a tree has survived for a decade or more.

You are both right and make very good points. I think you can summarize by saying that too deep a cold in the winter, too late a frost in the spring, extreme drought in the summer, or blazing sun accompanied by wind can all kill a JM faster than the charge for one clears on your credit card. Some of us get by for a while probably due to microclimates and good overall care. Why do we grow these things anyway? LOL! I do have an Acer shirasawanum "Autumn Moon that seems to be indestructible.

The 'Shirazz' might be a notable exception to the lack of hardiness. Mine gets morning shade and blazing full afternoon sun. It's fully exposed to the wind. It took last winter's -17° without a hitch. The only thing I do is supply regular water once a week by drip irrigation. The soil is sandy, well drained and slightly acid. I think this one might be a keeper. Spring leaf out is a show stopper.

As to a weeping Higan, I've got one grafted at 6'. It's leafing out nicely but flowers were very scant this spring, probably due to winter cold. Last year it was gorgeous in bloom. It's also in full sun and fully exposed to the wind. It's gotten quite large, probably nearing 15 X 15.

I don't blame you Weerobin for throwing in the towel. Digging up the two I lost this year was no joy. Another round of losses like that will likely make me an ex-JM collector. I can't afford it every year and it does take the joy out of gardening. Part of what saved me this year was the ability to find reasonably priced replacements that were good sized. See my comment in the Garden Watchdog for Davidsan's.

How nice to have a midwest source for JM's.
I always assumed there was a little culture shock for JM's sent to my house from the pacific NW!
I'll have to make a trek up to Springfield to check the place out!
(It's sometimes hard to remember that I've given up on the species...)