Japanese maples early leaf
>> Monday, March 26, 2012 –
japanese maple
Like almost every tree and shrub around, the Japanese maples have leafed out already. Mild winter means I'm very nervous about late freezes. (Spring 2007 was like that, and many Japanese maples were heavily damaged that year -- a lot of them in the area got removed later that summer.)
I love watching these small trees come awake in the spring. Is it because so many of them (all seven of mine actually) are red when the leaves are new? Is it because they're the right size, letting me get an up-close look without having to do some climbing or grab a ladder?
Or perhaps it's the heavily dissected leaves that attracts me, or the clusters or red flowers, the closest thing to bunches of cherries that I'll see hanging from anything in my garden. Whatever the reason, I love them!
More photos once all of these leaves are fully open. Remember, two of these trees I've only seen in leaf for a very short time at the end of last summer, and they were not in good shape -- they were end-of-season sale trees -- so I'm excited to see what they look like at their best.
Japanese maples: just another reason to love spring!
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I love the leafing out of the Japanese Maples, too - for all the reasons you mention and for how beautiful they are when backlit by the sun.
We only have two Japanese maples--a very large green one that came with the house and a small red dissectum cultivar whose name I keep forgetting. Watching these maples leaf out is one of the greatest pleasures of spring for me. Since you have seven, it must be spectacular.
I hope your maples are saved from Jack's icy fingers. I remember my red bud in St Louis. Many years a freeze came in time to destroy the blooming. Fingers crossed for you.
These are lovely photos. I look forward to see more of them when the leaves are all open.
I'm busy hunting for a small one for my garden. They are just too lovely to *not* have one.