Planting A J Green Cascade near wall

ejr2005

13 years ago

We just bought a young Acer japonicum Green Cascade and planted it near a retaining wall. We hope it will someday cascade down the wall. It's staked and is about 2-3' in height above the ground now.

I'm pretty new to JMs and gardening, though we have a beautiful A J Acontifolium, A S Aureum, new this year A S Autumn Moon. We also just planted an A P Tamukeyama in the same area.

After we planted the Green Cascade I realized that because of the wall (cement) it won't have a lot of room for the roots to grow on that side. I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendation for how far to plant it from the wall. I know that JMs often have shortened roots, but I'm wondering if we want that in this situation, if shorter roots on one side would encourage the tree to grow toward the other side (what we don't want), etc.

Also, does anyone have any advice on how to encourage the tree to grow toward the wall side.

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Comments (3)

ejr2005
Original Author
13 years ago
Any advice? I'm thinking that we should move it soon before it gets too established.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
13 years ago
I don't think you have much to worry about with the roots. The root systems of Asian maples are not particularly aggressive and like most trees, if they encounter an obstacle - the retaining wall - they will simply grow off to the side. To hasten the tree's 'drape' over the wall, I'd remove any staking ASAP. That will allow it to assume its natural cascading habit. And typically, one side of a weeping maple generally has a more pronounced weep or drape to it than the others, so I'd position the tree so that face is placed next to the wall.

FWIW, I grew one of these from a 4" potted seedling as a container plant for many years. Aways had to have it on a raised pedestal as the branches extended far longer than the container height. When I moved houses/gardens, it was too big to easily transport the distance to my new place so I donated it to a friend's garden where it was planted in exactly the same situation you describe....cascading over the top of a block retaining wall, where it looks stunning.

This selection also gets some of the best fall color of any Japanese maple I've ever encountered. You'll be very happy with it.
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ejr2005
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you Gardengal. It's good to hear of your experience with this tree.

When I didn't hear back from anyone here I decided to go ahead and move the tree further from the wall. It's now almost 3' away. I didn't want it just going over the wall but wanted to give it some height first. It was staked at about 3' high - I think that's enough so I'll take the stake out now.

My tree is still pretty little - just starting to grow beyond the stake. It's not weeping yet. Do you have any advice on how to make it weep in the preferred direction?

Do you have a picture of the tree at your friend's house? I'd love to see what it looks like weeping over the wall. I keep trying to envision mine big but I'm not being very successful.

My tree is still very green - can't wait to see it's fall colors, though it won't be very impressive yet. A big part of the reason we got the A J Green Cascade was that we love the fall color on the AJ Aconitifolium.