Low grafts are preferable to higher ones, as low grafts being lower on the trunk, near the root base are less visible. Low grafts are usually hand-done by experienced growers--making them more expensive to purchase.

However, higher grafts--prevalent on alot of mass produced nursery stock--are made by machines. This process leads to alot o fclumsy, inaexact matching between the trunk and the introduced "scion" of the grafted stock. That inexact union only gets worse with age, with ugly swelling and mismatched gross trunk taper errors resulting in " unsightly "necked up" trunks on mature maples.

If you can, go for the lower grafts. They usuallyl have much better matched unions and are more carefully done than the higher ones.

Unfortunately high grafts are the norm for some species of Japanese Maples that come from big nurseries, especially the red leaved palmatum varieties.

If you're after a specific variety of maple, you will find there are many variations of it, as maple varieties don't grow "true" from seed. The best ones are rooted cutting clones from a known variety. Specialist nurseries like mountainmaples.com and others are the best place to find the specific varieties you're after, although they're expensive and mostly small seedling to young three year old trees.

You should also know that some varieties of maple are going to have a harder time in your climate than others. Japanese maples, because they have extremely thin leaves, are prone to sunburn, windburn, etc. in warmer climates. Here in the No. Va. area (also Zone 7), many of them are leaf scortched by the end of July, especially thread leaved varieties. Planting one of the more heat tolerant varieties in a semi-shaded, wind sheltered place can help.

Thanks for the explanation about grafts. Most of the trees I see in nurseries seem to have grafts 12" or higher. My older Crimson Queen's graft is about 18" high, and I see what you mean about swelling. The trunk is much thicker below the graft than above it.

My trees will be planted on the north or east side of the house, so leaf burn should not be a problem. They will get morning and perhaps midday sun, but not in the heat of the afternoon.

I have had my Crimson Queen more than 10 years and the Viridis about 6 years and they both are doing fine, even though they are planted in spots where they get some afternoon sun.

Many Japanese Maple cultivars will not do as well on their own roots as thy would grafted on a vigorous root stock. In fact most if not all dissectums will not do at all with the exception of 'Seiryu'. As far as high grafts being the result of using a grafting machine, balderdash. Many people who use a knife graft high. I graft high and I graft low. With Acer japonicum I like to graft as low as possible. With palmatum it depends.Sometimes I do a low graft sometimes I do a high graft. Often you will get a larger more pendulous plant quicker with a high graft. I grafted a 'Sharp's Pygmy' on a 3' standard and now have a Topiary effect with it. Hey, Topiary, that's the ticket. Look in the Bazaar for a nursery called Topiary Gardens. I think they are a new listing. They can customize a graft for you.Reasonable prices too. They have a fantastic variety of Japanese Maple cultivars.

I agree with Elmore. I work in the nursery industry in Oregon, and also graft about 5000 JM's a year as my own little business(can mention it here because I'm NOT promoting, it's all pre-contracted and wholesale). Between myself and my nursery-related friends, I probably see 300,000 JM grafts a year, and not a single one is done by machine. The high-graft is a response to demand by garden centers for a plant that is saleable faster, cheaper. Instead of staking and training a trunk for 3 or more years before allowing the plant to spread and weep, the newly-grafted wood can spread and weep immediately because it's already 24" off the ground. If you look at the truly valuable specimen-sized plants, though, you will find that the low-grafted ones that have been trained to produce more "character" in the framework, have significantly more value -- both monetarily and esthetically.

A very good source that is relatively close to you is Eastwoods Nursery, in Washington, VA.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Eastwoods

Elmore, most of the grafted japanese maples at chain stores and larger nuseries are mass produced, hence the thousands available through those channels. It's also easier and cheaper for large nusery operations.

Here is a link that might be useful: grafting machine

I think a high or low graft depends both on perspective and the species. If I'm not mistake much of Mark's work is with bonsai or container plants where quality of trunk and cleran grafts are key factors. For landscaping stock or where more height may be desirable such as pendulous forms, higher grafts seem to be the norm. I disagee with the inference that high grafts connote cheap or mass produced.

Sabi

I agree with you Wasabi. Also those mass produced plants are generally produced by a crew, many of whom are transient, who's primary language is Spanish. Their tool of choice is a knife. Many times a straight razor sharpened to graft. I don't know of a single nurseryman who uses the machine. Or admits to it.

I do work with bonsai where grafts are highly important, since a bad one is readily apparent. I think, though, the high graft method does matter for landscape maples, especially if the tree is a focal point in a garden. As a student of bonsai, I have become obsessed ;-) with tree trunks in general since large trees are the model for bonsai.

In looking at landscape Japanese maples, I constantly see really really bad high grafts that "neck up" too fast, or are just plain ugly. The bulge or wierd taper just gets uglier and more pronounced with age.

High grafts can connote inferior plants--I'm speaking as a consumer who looks at alot of Japanese maples when searching for bonsai material--but it doesn't necessarily have to. A well done graft is a well done graft, high or low. However, the mass market produces a majority of badly done high grafts--I've looked through literally thousands of maples at Wal-Mart, etc and at specialty nurseries.

Obviously the nurseries are the best place to buy trees that have well-done grafts. They are not, however, the least expensive option.

Different growth rates for different species and even cultivars are the greatest concern when making a graft. Also the bark color. I sometimes match up, say a 'Red Dragon' to an atropurpureum rootstock. That way there is not a distinctive contrast between the color of the wood between the graft union. If you used a green palmatum for understock there would be a sharp contrast. Many times this will dissapear as the trunk develops bark but I have seen it even on old trees. As a matter of fact I was looking at a 'Red Dragon' that I have created, grafted about 12" up, and the rootstock is as green as can be and the 'Red Dragon' is...RED. I should have put more thought into it at the time. It is a relatively young graft and I have hopes that the contrast will not be very apparent with age. With that grafting tool I believe that the diameter of root stock and scion have to be fairly close also the expense prohibits it's use by the masses. We prefer to do it the old fashioned way, with a grafting knife.

Mark_Rockwell,

I work at a nursery that "mass produces" JM grafts (as does SilverVista) and I am familiar with many other wholesale nurseries that "mass produce" JM grafts. I've only heard of grafting machines used by nurseries in New Zealand. Most (I would say over 90%) of mass produced grafts are still hand done. High grafted JMs are actually more expensive to graft/purchase than low grafted JMs. You must purchase and/or select out your truely perfect strait trunked understocks so that your plants are consistant. We sell high grafts for approximately 20% more than low grafts for this reason.

Dawgie,

To answer your questions:
1. High/Low graft: It really depends on your preference. Both will eventually become beautiful specimens once they fill out. The strait trunk from the high graft appears a bit "artificial" when the plant is young, but as the tree ages it will blend in and actually enhance the beauty. Some dwarf cultivars are also top grafted onto standards to give a cool lolly pop look.
2. You will from time to time see wrongly labeled trees at nurseries. Here is where you must have confidence in the nursery that you are buying from. Talk with the owner/manager/employees to ensure they are truely familiar with the various cultivars. Ask how they are propagated and from where they were grafted. Ask the distiguishing features of a certain cultivar and how it varies from the others. If the personel can't answer your questions, it is possible that don't know and that they would likely mislable plants as well (i.e. put "Red Select" on "Everred" because they look similar).
3. Look for either "Waterfall" or "Green Mist" for your green cutleaf. Viridis is a catchall term for green cutleaf and no longer a true cultivar name in the trade. If you are sure that you have the true original "Viridis", then get it, otherwise "waterfall" and "green mist" are both beautiful and readily available in the trade. Other very nice green dissectum cultivars are: Green Hornet, Germain's Gyration, Spring Delight, Lemon Lime Lace, palmitifidum, Emerald Lace, Lemon Chiffon, and Filigree. Seriyu is also very nice, but it will have an upright habit, rather than a mounding habit like all of the others.

Best of Luck. I would pick Tamukeyama for your red cutleaf (hardiest and best red in my opinion).

JAWS

I like 'Green Mist'.

Thanks for all of the advice, everyone. After comparing plants available at nurseries in my area, I settled on two red varieties. I got a small Red Dragon because it was cheap ($30) at Home Depot. It is well shaped and about 30" tall with a high graft, but not many branches yet. For the larger tree I was looking for, I got a Garnet about 42" high with a low graft at a local nursery . Although none of the Japanese maples are leafed out yet here, the Garnets seemed to have the nicest form and branch structure of the varieties I looked at in nurseries. This particular tree also seemed the best value because the nursery had its trees on sale for 25% off, so I got a fairly large tree with really nice form and branching for $135.

I am still looking for a smaller green dissectum maple to grow in a container on my deck. I'm trying to find a Waterfall or some of the other varieties mentioned, but the nurseries here only seem to stock Viridis in green. I have a Viridis already that is about 42" tall and has been growing in my yard for about 6-7 years. It is a beautiful tree and I wouldn't mind having another, but I'm sort of a plant collector and like to try different varieties.

BTW, I posted a photo of our Japanese garden in the gallery. Not much to see yet because nothing has leafed out yet, but you can get an idea of the space I am working with. One of the maples will probably go in the front corner where the dwarf crepe myrtle is in the photo. That corner is fairly shady and protected from afternoon sun. If I put a maple there, I can move the crepe myrtle to a sunnier location where it will bloom better.

Dawgie,

One final note, as a container plant I prefer the look of a low graft. The container should already give you a little bit of height, so a top graft isn't really necessary. Keep looking, you'll find a Waterfall or Green Mist. Maybe try one of the online stores (forestfarm.com , greergardens.com, or rdrop.com). Good luck.

Jaws

Jaws,

I stand corrected.

I do however still say that there are alot of ugly high grafts out there, especially at the big box stores. Those grafts most frequently appear on Acer Palmatum "Atropurpureum" for some reason.

Mark_Rockwell,

As a bonsai enthusiast, you definitely have a keener eye regarding graft unions compared to the gardenist. There is actually a very good market for dissectum seedlings and atropurpureum seedlings for this reason. Our nursery has grown and sold dissectum seedlings to bonsai nurseries for this reason. The reason that they are great sellers is that bonsai people appreciate the natural quality of the seedling and the lack of a graft union.

The ugly grafted plants that you've seen at the big chain stores are the result of the few very high volume, low price, questionable quality growers that supply these stores. The quality of the plant material isn't actually the fault of the grower, but more of the relationship with the mega store. The growers that stock these stores work on very low profit margins and very high volumes, this is a recipe for poor quality (actually consistent with all product lines offered at these chain stores based on my experience). What makes it even harder for the nurseries that supply these chains is that the material gets returned to the grower on returns (in other words, the nursery eats the loss not the chain store). So, if the average joe doesn't water his Crimson Queen for a month after he plants it and it dies, he simply returns it to the chain store for a refund/exchange and the plant gets returned to the nursery for a full credit/exchange. This further lowers the nurseries profit margins. There are actually few nurseries that supply these large chain stores because many won't work for the low profit margins and headaches.

Sorry guys, Im surprised that most people misssed the important point. Quality of specimen established the difference between a tall or short graft is simply a design question.
Do you want a fantastic mass of stunning leaves low to the ground creating a small but intense red block of foliage maybe with a dark green or blue conifer behind it, or do you need maybe, a taller mass higher off the ground usually finer and wider so that in winter you notice the trunk and its profile, can see through the fine tracery of the branches to the distance where the winter iris are flowering, or in summer the plant off to the side with its branches heavy with foliage dangling in the water, leading your eye to the waterlilies, grouped just below.

sorry folks for this intrusion from another post,

lilyvic,
I find this difficult to respond to because my responses would appear unkind.
I would disagree with the placements of maple, its uses in the landscape in relation to contrast and especially placing waterlilies below maples.

The mounded form of maple in the Japanese garden is normally indicative of 'mountain', or hill, hillside, in which the texture lends distance. Occasionally maple is used as 'cloud', yet again, texture disturbs the 'seeing with' aspect of the textures.
The waterlilies are 'nearview' or 'here' position and the maples at best are in the 'there' or 'overthere' position in a garden. To mix the textures is confusing...
though what you have written may well be useful in a 'conventional looking at' garden.

as a nurseryman, I would agree with the graft 'use' creating landscape opportunities of high and low heads.
with kind regards,
edzard

Hi,
I am a newbie to the J. forum and greatly admire the Japanese maple. However, being ignorant, have become totally confused by the high and low graft and what type of tree it produces. Does the low graft produce a low, weeping mound effect, while the high graft a taller, more statelier stature? Or is it vise versa. Thanks for helping me out.

Gootzie,

I'm no expert, but offer this in hopes it helps:

Some JM's, particularly dissectums, are weeping, some are spreading, some produce slow-growing dwarf shrubs (yatsubusa) and some tend to be more upright. The plant's growth habit (along with seasonal color, leaf shape, size, tendancy to multi-trunk, etc.) is primarily dependent on cultivar, but grafting can sometimes make a difference.

High grafts can be interesting assuming color, bark match, growth rate of the top material and a host of other factors are in balance, but they do not work on all cultivars. For example, a dissectum like Viridis, grafted high (and/or staked when young), can make for an interesting weeping speciman plant, especially against a backdrop of conifers. The same cultivar, grafted low and left to its natural habit, might grace the corner of a stone wall and stairway as lower growing, cascading about to soften edges. By contrast, a Sango Kaku will grow upright, but is grafted as low as possible.

Sabi

can anyone tell me at what age grafting should be tried?
is it a simply a case of matching trunk diameter. also
how large of piece of a certain cultivar can be grafted/

leeTX,

I assume your referring to the age of the understock seedling. Generally 2-yr, 3-yr, and 4-yr seedlings are used. Usually, the plant spends one year in a seed bed or flat and another year (or at least growing season) in a pot, before it is grafted onto. As for trunk diameter, it is a good idea (although not absolutely necessary) to match the diameter of the understock with the diameter of the scion. If the two are same diameter, it is easier to match up cambium layers one both sides of your cuts. As for how large of a scion to cut (scion is the piece of cultivar wood), It is best to use 3 or 4 node scions, that is, a scion with three or four sets of buds. Best of luck,

JAWS

If you can wait many of the trees will be 50 to 75 percent off at the end of the season, that would be October or November . I purchased a great 4.5' red pygmy at the end last october for $100.

leeTX, my first inclination was to say that grafting should be done at an age where the grafter can reliably handle the knife..... :)) I actually purchase my rootstock from a wholesale source that direct-sows the seeds into tree pots in February, and delivers me a ready-to-graft pencil-caliper crop in September of the same year. If I want taller trees to graft higher than, say, 16-18", then I hold them over for a year and prune judiciously to get a taller, thicker rootstock. While the best of all scenarios is to have rootstock and scion exactly the same caliper so that you get a 2-sided graft, it's pretty unusual in practice. I prefer to match a scion that is thin enough that it is matched on one side, and then the flap of the understock can be matched back to it's original position on the other side. This creates a protective "pouch" surrounding the scion, and looks very nice when it has healed.

Susan

Hi, I hope someone can help me. I just bought a Garnet JM from a nearby nursery. I didn't notice (of course) that it had few "burnt" or "bleached-out" spots on some of its leaves. I planted it correctly and have watered it sufficiently, but these spots now are on about 80% of the leaves. I thought maybe it was from getting water on the leaves during the sunny period of the day, but I was careful to water the ground, not the plant. It will be in the sun from about 11am-6pm, and I'm wondering if it's too much sun (it's about the only spot for it in my small yard. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanx!!

In my part of Zone 5, direct sun from 11-6 would be fatal for a Japanese maple. Morning sun only would be your best bet.

Happy to weigh in. I previously lived in Maryland
Z7 for 5+ years b/f moving to PNW, and became Japanese
Maple fan, growing several varieties, including
Shishigashira, Waterfall, Tamakeyuma.
I believe in a hot climate (Maryland), Japanese Maples
do best with limited wind exposure (some type of screening really helps), and some (but not too
much) sun exposure--from 3 to 6 hours would be ideal. When U get more sun (8 hours+), in a hot climate U R askin for
leaf burn & stress. Stress factors (excess heat & drying
wind) become more critical with the laceleafs/dissectums, which have more surface area exposed with their thin leaves (and R thus, more susceptible to leaf burn).
In exposed spots in a hot climate, I would stick with larger-leafed varieties (whether green or red). I would
plant a laceleaf/dissectum in more-favorable, sheltered spots (180% or more) of wind-screen protection with some sun, but limited sun exposure.
I had great success with a Tamekuyama dissectum, situated against the house (and shielded on another side by bamboo), so his wind-shielding was probably 270% or so, with 4-5 hours of morning sun. Remember, though, this was probably near ideal situation for this maple, but he seemed very happy, and handled the tuff drought-ridden MD summers well.

Here's my message for Itsjisme. I have a four year old Garnet that is almost day-long sun and it thrives there. Vertrees notes that Garnet develops its best color in full sun.

Okay, I just bought an "Acer Palmatum Atropurpurea Nana" at the nearby Lowe's. It seems like a good value at $20.00; it's about 30" tall and the tag says it holds its scarlet-red leaves through "most of the summer", turning red again in fall. The trunk is a sort of reddish-black, and it's upright. Could this be a Bloodgood? And since it says "nana" does this infer that it will remain at 8-10 feet as the tag describes (rather than growing to 15-20 feet as do some Bloodgoods)? P.S. I've read elsewhere that NON-grafted species are hardier than the newer developed grated cultivars. My e-mail: efix@pcdi.com. THANKS!

Ellenfix, it's doubtful you have a Bloodgood, or it would have said Bloodgood. Sounds like you have a nongrafted red japanese maple grown from seed. Still a fine tree. As for being hardier than a grafted cultivar, not true.

We planted a Japanese Maple approximately three weeks ago and the leaves have turned brown and are falling off. We planted the tree properly, in an area where it should receive limited wind and 4-5 hours of morning sun. Could this be "shock" due to the recent move? Typically, what would cause the leaves to brown and fall off?

Anyone know of a good online nursery that sells inexpensive Japanese Maples?

Thanks

Bruces10 you are in the same zone as me and japanese maples dont do well here.. mainly the heat and sun.. I have 4 that are doing ok but I have lost countless others due to the weather.. the ones that are surviving are shaded pretty good most of the day and are the takayamura*** something breed sorry dont know the correct spelling.. I do have one crimson and its doing fine but its shaded pretty good.. all mine lose limbs and leaves each year but also gain others too.. the transplant could of done it but I found most maples are easy to transplant as their roots are shallow so easy to get all the root ball.. I would look at where you put it and see if it can get less sun... maybe contrary to what you heard but the sun here in 8a burns maples to a crisp every year..

I recently had a Crape Myrtle removed from a small courtyard adjacent to my front door. It was getting too big, brushing up against house & window, & the more I trimmed it, the bigger it grew. Decided I'd like to replace it w/ a smaller tree -- a Japanese Maple. Only thing is, the tree will be kind of 'out there' w/out the sunlight being filtered, though the courtyard is slighty recessed. I get morning shade, afternoon sun in this spot. Other plantings in this small area include: 1 fairly large gardenia, 2 camellias, 1 azalea, several holly ferns, a few coral bells, & a few Pierus (andromeda).

Is there a cultivar of JM that would do better in full sun than others? How about a Bloodgood? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Sorry, dawgie, I didn't mean to highjack your thread! I meant to send an OP! Please ignore...!