Very nice - I like Japanese maples. Your unknown is quite lovely. My parents have a very dwarf mushroom-shaped fernleaf Japanese maple in their front yard - not the most attractive tree I've ever seen, unfortunately. I like the larger ones better, and I've love to plant one at our new house next year.

I'm thinking postive - new house, a couple acres, daylilies up and down the hillside (everything around us is a hillside), seedlings everywhere. . . .

Laurel

Sounds like a dream come true Laurel. There are some really nice Japanese Maples and all are not Dwarfs. The two unknowns I posted are really growing now and are about 10 to 12 feet high. Could be taller but I won't measure them because to me, it makes no difference..
Wow!! Daylilies all over the hillside. I'm comin to see you!!

I forgot to post the pic of the Pampas Grass so here it is.....Ellie

{{gwi:636703}}

Here is some of my fall color {{gwi:631078}} By the time this tree drops all of it's leaves, they will be 8-10" thick.

I thought I would also include another of my favorite JM's but in a small form since I don't have any pics of it in the landscape. Maybe I can talk hubby into taking a pic today since this variety is in full fall color right now. This is a Shin Deshojo and this pic is taken in the spring - yup, this color in the spring and then again in the fall. It turns green during the summer but any new growth also is a vivid red color. It is an upright growing tree and is truly spectacular. {{gwi:636704}}

Laurel go to fantasticplants.com to see many varieties of JM's so you can plan for your future garden.

Brooke

Ellie and Brooke, your JM's are beautiful! Mine hasn't started turning red yet, but is always so pretty every fall. Someone gave me a pot of JM seedlings at a spring plant swap, and I've repotted them and now have about 30 or so in large pots. I'm waiting to see what the leaves look like when they turn, so I can hopefully plant more in my garden for fall color. The rest, I'll include in a plant sale next spring. Laurel, I will gladly share them with you next year, if you would like some. They are not named varieties, but should be pretty anyway.
Thanks for sharing those wonderful pics, ladies!!
Jan

Brooke, will you take a close-up pic of those leaves for me. I have one I paid quite a bit of money for several years ago and now it's about 15 feet tall. But it does the leaf change like yours and is so beautiful in the spring. The fall sometimes comes to quick and I don't always have leaves on it in the Autumn...

Ok Jan, get those pics out so we can see them when the leaves turn for you..Ellie

Thank you, Jan! I would love to try growing a couple of your "baby" JMs next year. My favorite JMs to look at (in catalogs and yards and nurseries etc.; I have none of my own) have broader foliage - I'm not as taken with the look of the "fernleaf" types. I would SERIOUSLY love to get myself a "Golden Full Moon" JM eventually (I've seen them in the Wayside Gardens catalog for several years now, and I can't get over their amazing broad foliage and bright chartreuse color). I'll have to update my trade list - the odds are long, but I may have something to share that you'd be interested in, and I'd love to trade. I could grow the JMs in large pots.

Laurel

This is the only picture I have a Shin that is more up close and again, this is in a bonsai pot. {{gwi:636705}} You may have one Ellie because I can't think of any other JM that starts the season as a bright cardinal red. I checked my planted Shin today and it is not quite as red as the spring foliage but that could be from drought conditions this year. It was lucky to get water from the hose to keep it going.

Here ya go Laurel - if you like the Full Moon, you will absolutely drool over this one. {{gwi:631123}} This is the Aureum JM and it is breathtaking in the spring because it glows. It holds it's bright green spring color late into the summer and then turns more orange in fall color.

Here is a tip for getting those "shrub" type JM's to have better vertical height to them instead of being so broad. Put a tall stake straight down the trunk area and pick a small branch at the top, tie the small twig straight up and you will convince the tree to grow tall instead of spreading sideways. The lower branches will still go horizontal but you have created a new leader to go upwards. I'm working on two Crimson Queen JM's to get them more vertical. I've also decided to just buy the vertical growing specimens.

There are several good specialty nurseries for JM's - not to knock Wayside, but you will get a better product from a specialty nursery.

Brooke

Brooke,

Oh yes, 'Aureum' is wonderful! Lovely, lovely. I know there are specialty nurseries for JMs - I first saw them in Wayside, that's all. Wayside was a good starting place when I was first beginning to garden at this house, but now I've learned that specialty places just can't be beat for a particular interest - like, DAYLILIES. (And I've gotten wonderful plants from nurseries for irises and peonies, too.) We all start somewhere.

SO, if I wanted to drool on my computer keyboard some blustery, freezing winter night, where could I look at some truly wonderful Japanese Maples?

Laurel

Lovely pictures all. A question - do JMs require (prefer) shade? I have one that has been in a pot a long time and needs to be planted out. As some of you know, I have very little shade. I think they are great and really need to plant this one.

Brooke, thanks.. I am going to take a picture of mine tomorrow if the rain stops and if there are any leaves left after the wind....Ellie

OK Laurel, you asked for it. You will be able to spend hours looking, researching, making lists, redoing lists, etc during the long winter. I cannot do hot links but if you add all those http/www before these names you can see hundreds of maples and learn about growth habit, hardiness, etc. ForestFarm (look under category maples), FantasticPlants, MendocinoMaples, MountainMaples. I have only purchased from Fantastic Plants and highly recommend them because their trees are always bigger/taller than advertised. The other nurseries get good reviews among the bonsai community. While property hunting, keep in mind these are as addictive as daylilies.

Royce JM's don't need or even want full shade but do need shade from the hot afternoon sun.

Brooke

Well, I asked! I've already been to Fantastic Plants this AM, and I can tell I will HAVE to get a JM when I have the space.

What can I say? More space = more room for plant interests. Besides, JMs won't really compete with the daylilies for space, so I can enjoy BOTH. Along with my peonies. And my historic tall bearded irises. And my lilacs. And some hostas, of course. Oh, and I can't forget the woodland plants. And the daffodils and tulips I bury like a squirrel every fall. Oh dear, one acre just won't be enough, I can tell. . . .

Laurel

Brooke,
Here is a picture of the JM that I think maybe Shin. It has only turned on one side, the SE side of all things..

{{gwi:636706}}

Here is a picture of the side that is beginning to turn from the green summer color. I think it's lovely when it's in between since there are so many colors. If you don't think it's a Shin, please tell me so, so I can begin a new search. I bought it from a nursery that is out of business now but specialized in reg. trees..especially JMs......Ellie

{{gwi:636707}}

Ellie the leaves look too big for a Shin and the other picture it appears the tree is taller than a mature Shin.

Go to the Fantastic Plants website and look up Shin deshojo and you can read the stats on it. It shows a spring and fall picture of the tree.

Whatever your tree is, it is magnificant. I love the JM's because of the difference in the foliage throughout the year. You get more bang for the buck - I love fall colors anyway but when they put on a show twice a year, unbeatable.

Laurel it is great so many of my other plant obsessions don't compete with the daylilies. If I have a sunny area, then daylilies it is but for areas where the daylilies can't perform at their best, yup, I can be obsessive about other things.

Another maple that is gorgeous all season is the Katsura. I bought a 2 year old graft late last fall on sale for $15, potted it up and in another two years, it will be big enough to plant in the landscape. {{gwi:631116}} This picture is late spring coloration but again, as the new foliage emerges all season, you get great color. I can't wait for this one to grow up enough to plant.

Brooke

I don't remember the name of my JM, however, it does have a pet name and it is "My Easter Dress"! Let me bore you with the story behind that name. :) Several years ago, my DH was somewhere in Florida on a job, and me and our daughter were here at home in early spring just prior to Easter. He sent Alyssa some cute things for Easter, and sent me some "special money" to buy myself a new Easter dress. Well, as you've probably already guessed, I bought the JM instead. LOL I'm not a big spender when it comes to buying clothes, but I do love my plants, and anyway, if I'd have gotten that dress, it would have been long forgotten by now and I can admire and love my JM everyday, still. :)
Here's a close up photo of the summer color of my JM's leaves, and it will turn a beautiful red soon.
{{gwi:636710}}
Laurel, here's a photo of my JM seedlings, they do have the broader leaves and a pretty green summer color. I don't know yet, what their spring and fall colors are.
{{gwi:636711}}
And here are some more photos of pretty fall colors in my garden now.
A Burning Bush:
{{gwi:636712}}
Some trees"
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This was taken from my porch:
{{gwi:64693}}
Jan

Lovely Jan. I had rather have a plant ( tree ) anytime than a rag for my back. I am mostly a jeans person anyway..they tend to last sooo long...

Anyway, your color is gorgeous...Ellie

Ellie, I'm a jeans person too, however, I will put on a dress or at least some dress slacks for church on Sundays. :) And that's only on Sunday mornings, we all wear jeans on Sunday nights and Wednesdays, too. :)
Jan

Beautiful babies, Jan!

Jeans - mm hmm, nothing else is quite as good. I'll dress up for special things, but 98% of the time I want my jeans.
And I'd far rather buy myself a plant than an item of clothing.

Laurel

WOW! Look at all the pretty leaves! Loved all the pics, y'all. We don't have much fall color here, so this was a real treat for me. Thanks for sharing.

Kathy
(a shorts person - my jeans are on standby for winter)

OMG....I've been missing out! ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS shots y'all!
I'm DROOLING and I definitely need a couple maples here!
Our fall colors have been nothing short of stunning here, been way too busy to take pics so thank all of you for sharing yours!
Nancy

Kathy, shorts are ok but when you get my age, you don't want anyone to see you in them.. Yecch!!

Jan, we wear dresses or skirts to church on Sunday mornings too and are very casual on Sunday Eves and Wednesdays. We like to be comfortable and you tend to pay more attention to Bible study if you aren't skirming around in your seat.

Boy, did we get off track from color. I guess this is what Mud and Brooke call " ramblin"........Ellie

Nice thing about men's clothes - so fer as I know they don't have nutin but jeans.

Mud

That's what my dh thinks mud, and I think you may be right...It has finally stopped raining..did you get some???

Ellie