go to the Maple Forum, there are very good instructions.

Hey Andrea
Don't send nice people to other forum^^ . We should help her and keep her here.

If I can find your adress, will send you chery bloosam poster. Have you ever see avocado color cherry flower ? It's there. I got this poster from member of Japan nusery association and he is one of board member.

mary
Don't expect Jmaple seedling same as parent tree. Many seedling may not look like parent tree. It is normal in Jmaple propergation from seed. Jmaple seed germinate at high rate and it is easy to propergate.

write us more what you don't know. your skill level etc. more you write, you get better response................ yama

Last fall I gathered seeds from a Japanese maple in front of my office. I put them in a ziplock plastic container in a sandmix, wing up. I stored them all winter in a room built for cold storage, an above the ground root cellar. Last month I check them and they were starting to sprout so they were transplanted into peat pots and put in a plastic storage container with a lid and brought in to room temperature. I now have nine little trees with two leaves. I don't care if they will look like the parent plant or not. It was fun and I will gather more this fall. I have heard that if you soak the dried seeds in hot water before putting them in the fridge they will sprout, but I put mine in the sand as soon as I picked them. I also stuck some in the ground last fall, but its still frozen.

I think if you try lukewarm water, it might be a lot safer than trying to cook them! Mine were successful without any water treatment at all.