Japanese mapleings

Japanese maples in the spring are wonderful, their foliage so fresh and perfect, as yet untouched by the blasts of summer heat. Plenty of water available, cool temperatures, vibrant colors -- but this post is not going to be a survey of my maples.

No, it's going to be a bit smaller in scope than that...

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...because I've discovered several seedlings underneath my largest, oldest Japanese maple!

I've found these before, but this seems to be a banner year for them...

...possibly because our winter was so long and cold? Did that give more of the seeds a chance to germinate? Or was it just that there were so many more tiny samara (winged fruit) in the fall that more seedlings were inevitable?

I counted seven seedlings right now, and there may be more of them too -- there are quite a few violets growing under here along with some groundcover juniper, so finding the seedlings is more difficult than you might expect.

So I dug them up...

...getting as much of a rootball as possible...

...even though it doesn't really matter at this size. It seems like I can get any amount of root and they will still survive and grow. Some of these ended up being bare-root plants.

Then I potted them all up (where did that photo go?) and will keep them watered and see how they do. I expect most of them to do just fine, and in a couple of years they will become...

...something that is a bit more impressive. (This one was from two years ago I think, maybe three. Did I not post about these when I first dug them up?)


So there you have it, my 2014 crop of Japanese Maple seedlings -- my Japanese mapleings!

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