Although I don't have one to confirm my thoughts, I'd say geisha is similar to ukigumo in that it has its good years and bad.

They both look like the same plant to me. I think that they were pictures taken at different times of the year and also that one picture could have been of a plant in a little deeper shade than the other.

As I have said many times ...if you buy because of catalogue jpegs you probably will be disappointed.As any seller will do they post the "best photo ever".. and one that was likely has been heavily photoshopped..which on a UBC forum probably was not the case. Of course in some cases the opposite is true if the seller is not good at photography or photoshop ;>)...but reguardless of photography tricks of trade...any grown in jm perfect areas under JM expert care will likely look differnt that what you will grow in your area ..Also age plays a big part...a young tree may not reach the potential for many years and generally sellers don't post jpegs of yougins... But ucb folks often do. In addition with all the grafting and scources selling you may not have the exact same plant as pictured close but no cigar. A good example of this is pick up any garden seed caralogue ... every item is listed as "best ever" "newest best" "super largest" yatayatayata.The photos are gorgeous you want that potato ;>)..and if you grow veggies like pictured and have a garden as shown with no weeds you'd be the exception rather than the rule Pictures "can" lie.....David

Yo're right David. I will suggest to garcan to check the maple photo gallery of the UBCBG website. They have several pictures of practically the majority of the JMs on trade, (and some more). the pictures are contributions and shows (most of the time) the real world image of each cultivar. Take a look here for others than "palmatums":

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=86
and here for the "palmatum" group:

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=208

good luck!

nelran