Bill,

You don't want to buy seeds. You want to buy scion wood and rootstock to graft your own. With seeds you never know what you are getting. I know that Pacific Coast Maples http://www.pacificcoastmaples.com has scion wood and rootstock and i'd check out Sooner Plant Farm in Oklahoma www.soonerplantfarm.com .

Here is a link that might be useful: Pacific Coast Maples

Japanese maples are propagated by grafted cuttings. The seeds are quite easy to germinate, but as maplecollector points out, cannot be considered true to their origin. Seedlings grown from a 'Bloodgood' or 'Fireglow' or whatever may or may not resemble anything like the source and cannot be referred to by that cultivar name. Nonetheless, many folks do grow excellent forms of JM from seed, they just cannot be considered named forms.

So beware of anyone selling "named" forms of Japanese maples seeds - if they are charging a premium for a named cultivar, they are just ripping you off. What you will get is a generic Japanese maple.

A good place to buy is ebay...I just purchased some acer palmatum seeds to grow as understock...I would like to try my hand at grafting....s

Ebay seeds are mostly over priced garbage. If you can get a quantity at a good price ( say 100 for 10$$) then go for it otherwise you buy 5- 10 seeds and who knows how many will sprout maybe 2,1,0 ????...for 4.95+++ thats ALOT of $$$ for nothing ...then how many will it survive??? I guarantee you will loose a certain proportion even in perfect comnditions ...you WILL loose some thats for sure and if all ya have is a couple of little gerninated seedlings ...huummmm???????? I guess if you want to play it really doesn't matter if you are serious then I would give it a bit of thought
Also if you want root stock buy it... unless you are into a 3 year plan and plant seeds every year...It takes 2-3 years for most Jm seedlings to be of "graftable" size unless they are really pushed under perfect conditions and 2 years to make sure it will make it ( do you want to waist alot of time grafting and have it take, but have your excitment smashed by having grafted on root stock that dies within 3-4 monthas just as your tree is starting to look good that same year or a year later...been there done that!!! )
...I personally can't think past next week let alone 2 years from now ;>)and I buy my rootstock that is at least 2 years old as well as do seeds for future .I may have all my own RS eventually but am NOT betting on it.... but if you "really" want to "zen" yourself ...go for it..David

Go to your local nursery when the seed wings are begining to brown and harvest. I have never had a nursery say no to taking a couple dozen or more seed. Just ask one of the helper guys in the field and help yourself. You may still find some seed on trees depending on your zone.

Remember most cultivars are grafted and if seed is produced and viable they do not come true to form. Some will but most don't.

Grancru

Is it true that samaras falling from the A. palmatums are more viable for germination than when you pluck them off of the tree?

Cultivar seed is more desireable than seed bought as Acer palmatum. So therefore finding named trees will create a much more diverse "look."
Same with anything, a conifer, etc-.

Give seedlings a try, they're actually worth more credit than people believe. You should see some of the seedlings I grew last year. Incredible! Nothing short of named cultivars in my opinon.

Dax

P.s. Acer palmatum 'Orido Nishiki' can create some beautiful variegated seedlings. Have fun, good luck. Dax

Hi Bill:
Here you are some websites to buy japanese maple seeds

http://www.trees-seeds.com/seeds.htm
http://www.sheffields.com/info/list.lasso?-Token.Z=12812251414
http://www.japanese-maple.com/

Best regards

Juanjo

Aethetic pruner. They are prone to dampening off but the germination rate of green fresh seed is better than dried. Be sure a circulation fan is running.

Dax

I would have to agree with Dax. Although you will never get a cultivar from seed, chances are you will get some great looking trees. I have over 375 Japanese Maples in my gardens comprised of over 225 cultivars. Mixed in with these cultivars are many seedling grown maples. Often these seedlings are trees that draw the most attention on garden visits.

I would also not be so fast to condem someone selling seed from named cultivars. I have just posted a message on the UBC Maple forum from the Maplewood Nursery 1980 plant list. Page three of this is a cultivar seed list. I will try to include a link below.

Ed

Here is a link that might be useful: Maplewood Nursery 1980

Agree with Ed. Many people in the know are passionate about germinating seedlings because ya never know. GardenGal what is your technique for germinating? This is my first year trying to germinate. ~15% is the success rate mentioned by those I spoke with. Also FlowerFans pics in "This fall's best show?" are seedlings she selected and they are beauties. I decided that the challenge and the mystery of what i might come up with would be worth it. I used samaras from plants i grow and adapted Vertrees stratification method. Good Luck to Bill

GardenGal what is your technique for germinating?

LOL!! I don't do it intentionally - don't have either the time or patience - I just let Mother Nature take her course. J. maples grow like weeds here and seedlings sprout and proliferate under established trees with ease. I have a volunteer vine maple in a corner of my garden that I have no idea where it came from. Maybe the birds planted it as there are no circinatums in the immediate vicinity. I'm not even sure there's one in the neighborhood.

Thanks GG,

Letting mother nature do its thing is best. She has resources to spare. 15% of hundreds of samaras is plenty of seedlings.

Here it gets colder and the samaras fall mostly on concrete. It's a labor of love to collect, label, stratify, monitor and pot-up. Yet I might end up with something like Dax or FlowerFan.

According to the article below there is more going on than you might guess in the growth and survival of maple seedlings in the forest.

Here is a link that might be useful: Article related to germination

Any one wanting to mess with seeds should it's a free country, less so over the last 7 years, but it's still has no laws against growing cultivar seeds last time I checked...I personally choose not to I don't have the time or space to experiment ...
But I stand by my statement selling "cultivar seeds" is unethical unless it is clearly stated as in THE 1980 CATALOGUe FROM MAPLEWOOSDS THAT QUALIFY WHAT YOU GET FROM SUCH SEEDS!!!. This is NOT the case in any Ebay offerings I have seen and and is not something to be taken lightly or approved of cause you can get pretty trees from seeds!!! if we are not careful the propagation of varias culivars could eventually be totally screwed up ( even more than some are now) by such ignorance when folks sell and propagate (graft) said seedlings as the "genuine" cultivars that came from probably not even knowing some idiot improperly sold and specified it as the "real thing ...gave them the scions and they in turn propages a non specific nothing passing it off as a genuene named cultivar(not generic nothings that they actually are) to someone else and on and on and on......the tree maybe pretty, maybe worthy, but should have THEIR OWN names...

There are many nightmare sceneios ( that might already be happening) from such unethical actions so it is important to not blindly label this sort of stuff as OK in any way and promote cultivar seed sales and purchases blindly without clearly stated disclaimers which seems to be the case in several of these posts!! !!! David

David,

I think that you are confusing the issue as I believe the original post was about buying maple seed. I agree with your point that buying seed from sellers on Ebay is not a good option just as I do not order any Japanese Maples from Ebay. The issue of "unethical actions" has nothing to do with selling cultivar seeds or cultivars for that matter; it has to do with the person or establishment. I did not get the idea that Bill was looking to sow some cultivar seed and start his new named cultivar nock-off nursery.

I have thousands of Japanese Maple seedling that grow in my garden beds each year along with the few flats of seed that I collect and germinate. It provides great pleasure and an inexpensive way to share the beauty of these trees with others that are not interested in named cultivars. I have never sold a seed, seedling or a cultivar for that matter and have yet to find one that I wanted to introduce after 17 years.

You bring up the point of the "nightmare scenarios" that might already be happening from people growing seed and then people graft said seedlings. You are again correct; unfortunately with the popularity of Japanese and other maples, supposed new cultivars are endless. We now have at least 9 books on maples and three Forums on Maples. Vertrees states that from the early 1600s to when his first book was printed in 1978 there were over 250 cultivars. Now in 2007 I am seeing estimates of over 1,000 cultivars. So it took the Japanese about 350 years to select 250 cultivars and the modern maple enthusiast 33 years to name 750 more.

The Maplewood Nursery catalog and the Red Maple Nursery catalogs were posted on the UBC Maple Forum at the request of others interested in some of my old records not for the issue of this post.

Bill,
Please send me an email and I will be glad to send some seed to experiment with.

Ed

Here's a couple good examples I gotr in an email from eBay ( who BTW is not to blaim) there are hundreds more!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320188273960&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230196664121&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

the second one is even more ignorant...and confusing to the average eBay'er

There is NO such thing as Bonzai seeds and I might add there is a differance between an Atro and Bloodgood and neither is ideal for bonzai anyway!! This is what I am talking about... not folks growing seeds because they have lots of time and room , like to grow things,and or do NOT have the money to buy named JM's and WOULD NOT ever pass them off as the named cultivar of their parentage!!
Most folks experience with growing seeds are of the garden variety and do not have any idea or understand what they are getting and will likely believe this garbage as gospel... I am sure the overwhelming majority of folks buying seeds off eBay think there IS such a thing as "Bonzai seed" since these ads are so convincing...or they are really gonna get a "bonified Orangeola" from that expertly hervested seed. And to top all this disception and false adv. off... the prices are really outrageous considering what they are actually getting and the proportion that will actually sprout, which for a novice will even be less than most of us get!!! David

Those seed listings on Ebay showing a beautifully grown tree, bonsai or standard, really get my goat too David. Even some of the vendors selling cutting grown and grafts are sketchy. It's definitely a buyer beware market on ebay. Bidders who educate themselves (like Bill) will be ahead of the game on ebay. Seems to me that anyone with the perseverance to grow from seed will learn the ropes soon enough. For balance i must add that i have bought grafts of excellent quality from ebay vendors.

Here is a link that might be useful: example of reputable grafted tree vendor

I agree I have bought quite a few youngin's off ebay just for kicks the graft folks are a bit more ethical and knowledable than the seed folks although i have seen at least one seeder with a disclaimer within his offering even though the baited subject line was totally misleading ...

There are several very reputable seller's on ebay of grafted cultivars most offer only tiny stuff but what I have bought seems to be true to form ... What to watch with ebay is ..#1 when nobody bids on a sellers items of which the is NOT new #2 whenyou get NO responce to a question #3 when a person gives sizes without ages ( should have both) #4 when someone stuff ALWAYS goes for really high $$ even though it may in fact be more rare but not of size and even the non rare styuff is TOO HIGH...me thinks there may be some insider trading there to jack up prices!!I don't think the possitrive to negative % are of much use IMHO