My aunt visited our family from TN two weeks ago and along with her she brought a passion and hobby of taking care of Japanese Maple tree's. I had always thought they were beautiful trees but never really gave them much thought past that. However my aunt exposed me to the hobby of Japanese Maples. Which includes collecting their seeds and growing them from seed, taking cuts (scions) and grafting them to the base of a young tree to grow the type of Maple the scion is. There is also the hobby of pruning the Maples to make them look even better.
So while visiting local Nursery's she found some great trees. She found and bought for me: A Toyama-Nishiki which is a beautiful Weeping Maple. She got three Acer Palmatum's for grafting, a gorgeous Acer Palmatum Shirazz, and another which I am not sure its name.
Today i got in the mail the six Acer Palmatum root-stock's from Lace Leaf Nursery (in Gig Habor, WA) http://www.laceleafnursery.com/m/trees.htm . These will also be used for grafting scion cuttings from more exotic and beautiful Japanese Maples.
In our backyard there is a grown Bloodgood (as seen in the background of some of the pictures below), this September-October its seeds will be ready to be harvested and planted. This excited me so I talked with my aunt about the ways i could go about germinating these Bloodgood seeds and growing them. I found a great option as seen in the last picture of the slideshow. They are "Cone-tainers" ( http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/cone-tainers/tree-seedling-containers ) and they are a tray, with 98 cells which have a tall, cone-shaped design and internal vertical anti-spiral ribs that let roots grow deep and straight. Each individual cell has a center drainage hole on the bottom and four side-drain holes on the tapered end. The cone cells have a diameter of 1.5" and a depth of 8.25". My mother also has a Inaba Shidare that will produce seeds, however it is a grafted Inaba Shidare so its seeds will grow to be uncertain. So 49 of the cells will go to the Inaba Shidare, and the remaining 49+98 cells will go to the Bloodgood.
So while visiting local Nursery's she found some great trees. She found and bought for me: A Toyama-Nishiki which is a beautiful Weeping Maple. She got three Acer Palmatum's for grafting, a gorgeous Acer Palmatum Shirazz, and another which I am not sure its name.
Today i got in the mail the six Acer Palmatum root-stock's from Lace Leaf Nursery (in Gig Habor, WA) http://www.laceleafnursery.com/m/trees.htm . These will also be used for grafting scion cuttings from more exotic and beautiful Japanese Maples.
In our backyard there is a grown Bloodgood (as seen in the background of some of the pictures below), this September-October its seeds will be ready to be harvested and planted. This excited me so I talked with my aunt about the ways i could go about germinating these Bloodgood seeds and growing them. I found a great option as seen in the last picture of the slideshow. They are "Cone-tainers" ( http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/cone-tainers/tree-seedling-containers ) and they are a tray, with 98 cells which have a tall, cone-shaped design and internal vertical anti-spiral ribs that let roots grow deep and straight. Each individual cell has a center drainage hole on the bottom and four side-drain holes on the tapered end. The cone cells have a diameter of 1.5" and a depth of 8.25". My mother also has a Inaba Shidare that will produce seeds, however it is a grafted Inaba Shidare so its seeds will grow to be uncertain. So 49 of the cells will go to the Inaba Shidare, and the remaining 49+98 cells will go to the Bloodgood.