thank you!

I am in Chatham Co, North Carolina and recently saw signs for a new nursery here. I now see that they claim to have been here for three years. I was planning to check them out UNTIL it appeared that they only or mainly had maples. I didn't need any more, but obviously it is right up your alley. Here you go.

This post has some age to it but I want to put in a good word for Mr. Maple. They are a little bit away from you but I think it would be worth the trip. I visited the nursery on Sunday and was blown away by the quality of the plants, knowledge and friendliness of the staff, and the very large selection of cultivars.

For mail order I am a big fan to Diana at Topiary Gardens (www.topiary-gardens.com). I have purchased a couple trees from her and they always arrive well packaged and very healthy.

A late addition to this thread, added for those looking for Japanese maples in NC: I just bought two this past weekend from Mr. Maple (Tim and Matt Nichols in East Flat Rock, about 1/2 hour south of Asheville). As stated above, great maples, terrific assortment of interesting cultivars. Most are 3 gal. sizes, much smaller selection of 7 gal. and up. Lovely acers in their demonstration garden at their mother's home just up the road from the nursery. Their knowledge and friendliness is fantastic, and they do mail order. If you want to visit the nursery, call to make an appointment. They also have a great selection of ginkgoes, especially the dwarf cultivars. These are plants they propagate and graft themselves, so you are buying from the source.

The following are retail nurseries that are selling trees others have propagated:

For larger, well-grown maples and many conifers and other things, The Unique Plant between Chapel Hill and Durham is great, and Joanne has fantastic acers around the property to see what they grow into. Much higher prices than Mr. Maple, but for larger specimens.

Atlantic Garden Center in Raleigh has quite a few maples in early spring, a handful of different cultivars, and fewer as the season progresses. Knowledgeable, friendly staff. Middling prices. Logan in downtown Raleigh is similar, but the staff is not as knowledgeable about Japanese maples, at least the staff I could find a couple of times I was there. Seems like somewhat higher prices at Logan, though I always enjoy my visits there.

I found Chad of Get Rooted in Chatham County irritable and unhelpful. Large selection of maples and other interesting plants, but lots of die-back on various of the maples.

There are other sources in NC, but these are the places I've personally visited this season.

The Japanese Maple Tree Farm has a decent selection of trees and good prices considering the size of their trees. They are located on NC 98 between Durham and Wake Forest.

http://japanesemaples-nc.com/

BTW, I have bought a wide selection of first-year grafts from various on-line sources over the years with great results. I grow them in containers and eventually plant larger and more vigorous ones in my yard. I’ve bought trees on-line from Herters, World Plants and Whitman Farms. I would recommend whitmanfarms.com the most.

I live In NC and have struggled to find Japanese Maples which are not standard varietit’s. There is a gentleman In Lewisville NC, Jim Holland who has many unusual varieties Jim has several greenhouses, and has collected a respectable variety of maples. (336) 813-5543 Jim Holland Maples.

Another fellow who also has a tremendous stock of Japanese Maples is in Mocksville, Providence Farms, a guy named Carl Weston.

My source for mailorder is , MapleStone. Honestly, you get beautiful trees and they are much more reasonably, albeit young. This is why they run out of the more unusual trees fairly quickly.

Good luck!

pammie