Sorry. I should have done my own homework before asking. I had no idea there were a million varieties out there.

What do you think about Fireglow?

~ freshair

Sure. There are that will stay small as long as they are protected from afternoon sun. Well pretty much all of them. Www. Metromaples.com will have some info for you. There is one particular dwarf that I really want!

I recently got Fireglow for 50% off at Lowes. The tag said it will only get 6 ft tall. Of course the tag also said partial to full sun! How's that for false advertising. And the grower is in OK. They should know better.

Lou, I bought a Bloodgood too. Both of these trees stand about 5 ft tall, but they lack any significant branches on the side: just little arms. Is it odd to have such tall slender trees? I'm ignorant. Does this mean that they are recent grafts of long slender branches onto rootstock?

c

Cynthia ~

By recently, do you mean a couple of days ago, or earlier this summer? My local Lowe's has zero trees of any kind in stock & local Home Depot had several, but only of three different kind, none of which were Fireglow. Do you think they have any left?

~ Amy

It was in June. They sold out at the one in South Arlington. The last time I was at the Lowes at Eastchase they still had JM's in stock. I didn't notice the varieties, but you might call. I believe I saw Moonglow at Calloways in N Arlington.

sorry that was Moonfire

I have Waterfall and it stays small. Great fall color.

Metro Maples has tons of all kinds of Japanese maple trees right now. That is the PLACE to go when it comes to Japanese Maple. The price seemed to be reasonable. I am trying Paperbark maple but so far, it doesn't seem to be too happy in alkaline rocky soil so I can't imagine growing Japanese maple with ease. I may be able to grow dwarf JMs where I can just build a raised bed or mound of good soil for it. I just have to wait for trees to grow big enough to provide sufficient shade. Metro Maple gave me a test plant of possible dwarf shantung maple that would thrive in my horrible soil. They also have another one called Baby Dragon shantung maple that is 4x4 ft after 12,14 years. Very slow growing. Probably that's why they don't have them or sale yet. Another one that may be available this fall is Dwarf Golden Dragon (or is that next year?). They are often considered an alternative to Japanese maple for tough condition like high wind, terrible soil, drought and full sun where they can't grow Japanese maple. I just wish I had better soil with large shade trees to grow JMs now.

Cynthia,

Sometimes they bunch trees so close together so they just grow straight up with no side branches but they should eventually fill out. I grew a few JM from seeds and they seem to be floppy right now in the container. I guess that's the nature of JMs.

Thanks Lou
You are a wealth of info into the mystery of maples.

I'm pretty lucky, our soil isn't East TX acid, but it's not your high alkaline clay either. JM's seem happy all around central Arlington. There is a HUGE one just one block away

Lou - The JM seedlings will stay floppy for at least five years. If you trim the branch tips, they will strengthen a bit. It's very hard to make yourself do this, but it's better in the long run for the plant. One of my seedlings got dropped during the second year and now it's the strongest of the three despite having one of its only two branches broken off. The other two were very floppy until attacked by aphids this spring and lost almost all their leaves. I cut all the dead twigs and they leafed out again with a stronger trunk.