Beni Otaki (Update 2023)

 Original Post - Back in 2005
https://japanesemaples.blogspot.com/2005/10/i-heard-of-red-bamboo-and-always.html

I have had this Beni Otaki since 2005, so technically 18 years! Wow, time flies when you are having fun :D

In March 2021, I pruned my Beni Otaki tree and attempted to give it a compact style. However, I ended up pruning too much and my wife, who had previously wanted the tree to be smaller, was surprised by the amount of pruning. I was worried that I may have harmed one of my favorite Japanese Maple trees.

I began by simply trimming and styling, but eventually started removing larger sections of the plant. To balance it out, I removed even more. I realized I had gone too far with my pruning. The attached photo was taken a few seasons ago.

I have extensively pruned Japanese Maple trees in the past, but never to this extent. I was worried about the consequences. Fortunately, new growth started to appear in the Spring of 2022, much to my relief. The tree is not yet back to its desired appearance, but it is recovering. I need to be more cautious in the future and remember that patience is key, and not to prune too much at once.

By far, Beni Otaki is still one of my favorite Japanese Maple, especially when all the leaves appears like red bamboo.   I have to take a picture soon when those leaves turns Bamboo shape :)

Japanese Maple Acer Palmatum Ryusen

Ryusen is an interesting Japanese Maple which has palmate foliage, yet it has weeping growth habit.  The name 'Ryu sei', translates as "falling stars", developed in Kawaguchi City in 1990 by Kahuzara Kobayashi.

Ryusen (or Ryusei) is a unique Japanese maple of strictly weeping habit with typical palmte, not dissected leaves. It was found as a natural mutation of one whole plant in Japanese maple nursery in Kawaguchi City in 1990. Its founder Kahuzara Kobayashi named it Ryusen (flowing or falling water) whereas its former provisional name, in my view a little more accurate, was Ryusei(falling star). The patent was issued in 2008 as PP18501.

Acer palmatum ‘Ryu sei’ is an exciting new pendulous Japanese maple with palmate foliage and an amazing shape. A recent introduction from Kobayashi Nursery in Japan this small elegant tree adds a unique form with an exotic appeal to the landscape. The name 'Ryu sei', translates as "falling stars". In early spring ‘Ryu sei’ displays bright shades of chartreuse green. The beautiful chartreuse green new growth accents older growth with smooth dark green foliage throughout the summer months. An amazing fall color change highlights this weeping maple form. The ‘Ryu sei’ Japanese maple has autumn leaves that reach shades of bright reds to deep oranges.

This amazing small form of weeping Japanese maple is extremely pendulous. This unique shape makes it extremely malleable to the creativity of the gardener. By growing ‘Ryu sei’ grow to its typical form this tree reaches around 5-6 feet in 15 years. Staking a central leader can greatly change the form by adding height and unique branching. Your gardening creativity with ‘Ryu sei’ can be as big (or small) as your imagination allows. We have even seen ‘Ryu sei’ grown upside down from a hanging basket to add a new unique perspective to weeping Japanese maples.

The weeping ‘Ryu sei’ Japanese maple is very heat tolerant and durable. This elegant tree can handle full sun up to zone 8 and makes an excellent addition for zones 5-9. Yes, this vigorous tree does great with shade as well and brings amazing shape, color and texture. ‘Ryu sei’ is great for: container patio planting, bonsai and small garden areas. As a staked tree, ‘Ryu sei’ make a great focal point plants in the landscape. Add ‘Ryu sei’ to a bank to provide a unique cascading beauty or near a water feature to accentuate its graceful pendulous form. 

I purchased my first Ryusen graft from Ebay.   Obviously, graft was so tiny, there's no way of knowing at that time, if my Rysen was true or another variety of Acer Palmatum.  However, I wanted to try (As none of the reputable nursery had any Ryusen available).   But unfortunately, that turned out to be an unknown species because leaves and the overall behavior looks different (even though this one also have the weeping behavior).

However, leaves are definitely different and weeping behavior somewhat different as well.  I imagine this was grown from seed, and not true to type.   

I actually did get a true Ryusen at a local nursery later and that one showed most of the standard Ryusen behaviro

 

Acer buergerianum var. formosanum aka Miyasma Yatsubusa (Taiwan Trident Maple)

 Since my success with new Air Layer, I decided to pull the mother tree off of the ground and plant it in a "Training Pot" (actually a plastic wine barrel).  Ah, I do actually like the Fall Color.   I think definitely the most favorite Bonsai (future Bonsai) in my collection.

Acer Buergerianum Formosanum - Mino Yatsubusa

With my obsession toward my Miyasama (e.g Taiwanese Trident Maple), when I came across Mino Yatsubusa (close cousin of Miyasama), I started looking into it.  As usual, there weren't much info out there other than bits and pieces info (including some in language I do not understand).  However, I fortunately ran into this seller via Amazon who had it listed (purchased date December 11, 2016 but shipped Closer to mid February of the following year) . Although I wasn't a happy camper when I first saw it ( withstood some shipping damage and I received what looked like a dead stick :D) . My initial reaction in my defense were not uncalled for. I was so upset, I gave the seller a negative feedback when he didn't respond to my first couple of email. After the negative feedback, he came back to me and wanted to solve the situation (he didn't have one to replace; therefore offered me a full refund).  I decided to let bygones be bygones, forget the refund and stick with the stick. :p

Anyway, fast forward to late Spring 2017,  I started to see some encouraging signs and by Summer 2017, tree was putting out pretty good growth. (Picture Above)

Description from the Seller:

Few small trees stand up to urban conditions as well as the trident maple, Acer buergerianum. In the wild in eastern China and Taiwan it can form a large tree and I was fortunate to see a giant on Tianmu Shan that must have been over 65′ tall. In the garden however they rarely grow larger than 35′ and have been shown to tolerate compacted soils, significant drought, and pollution rather well once they are established. The selection ‘Mino Yatsubusa’ is a slow growing, very choice selection with deeply cut leaves and narrow lobes. It will slowly form a small tree with a broad domed head. It is highly prized for bonsai work and can be pruned into lovely shapes in the landscape. Overall, it gives a somewhat fine texture to the middle canopy and fits into almost any garden setting. Fall color is an intense medley of red, orange, and gold and the winter bark is attractively shaggy on older plants. Plants will grow in full sun but seem to be happiest in light shade in the heat of the south. Plants are often difficult to find since it can be difficult to graft and softwood cuttings root only in very small percentagesAcer buergerianum 'Mino Yatsubusa'Minimum 6 feet , Maximum 10 feet Rare and special, this dwarf rounded shrub has beautiful (tho un-maple-like!) foliage with 3 narrow lobes, the 2 basal lobes at right-angles to a long finely-tipped center;lacquered orange-red fall color! S-PSh/Med

I am curious how this would look in a bonsai format in the years to come (leaves look pretty interesting).  Leaves aren't as thick as Miyasama, but not as thin as typical Trident Maple leaves either.  I like what I'm seeing ...

So I continue to let it vigor up in a growing pot with intention of  field growing for thickening up a bit.

December 5, 2017 (almost 3.5 months on the ground since I moved the plant for field growing. I like the orange red look of her Fall Color. It stayed like this for a bit (I didn't count) and expected the leaves to drop soon but she had other plan.

These pictures taken with iPhone actually fail to do justice here as it didn't capture the beautiful orangy red color.   I can't wait for this tree to get some growth and with lush, it would show the true color.

Until next time, happy growing :)

So here I am in 2022, decided, I need to move the plant to a different location as it is growing way bigger for that specific location.    I decided to do some heavy trimming at first while it was still in dormant, before moving.   Here's some pictures

Acer Buergerianum Formosanum - Miyasama Yatsubusa (Chinese: tai wan san jiao feng)

It's been a while since I last talked about my Taiwanese Trident or  Acer Buergerianum Formosanum  aka Miasma Yatsubusa.   After successfully propagating two more, I decided to relocate the mother tree to a Bonsai Training Pot.  Since I lost my root over rock project with her sister, and so finicky to root cutting etc, I didn't want to risk loosing her too. :)

Anyway, she seems to be ok with the new apartment so far.  This would be the first Winter in this pot, but I plan to stay vigilant this time around (not expose to much like I've done with with the Root Over Roc project during Winter time).   I have no idea about future styling, designing etc, but for now, I want her to thrive in this pot for couple of season before I consider moving her to a more traditional bonsai pot.  I actually like the Round style, so I might go in that direction on the right time comes.

Oh from Internet Bonsai Club forum a member: twyama3388 informed me something interesting today as to how these Taiwanese Maples were named Miyasama.  I learn something everyday :)

Miyasama is native to Taiwan, which is a Taiwan maple, since ancient times is authored as bonsai trees. Reason is called the Miyasma maple like to said. When originally called Taiwan maple had spread to Japan. Since there is also a Taiwan production of maple "sugar maple", also known as Taiwan. that can not be distinguished. So Article 500 bonsai magazine editor Mr. Miyasama put this maple named Miasma .

That forum member 'twyama3388' also shared couple of pictures that look slightly different than the one I have, but very close.   I think my Miyasama's leaves are much more thicker, darker (when matured) and smaller (even when field growing for many years, these leaves are smaller.

 As I mentioned, I have created two more using Air Layer Method (one is tall and other one is short) . They are both growing nicely so far.  They are my security of attempting things with the mother tree though I would be very heartbroken if something were to happen, so will be ever so careful.   I think this plant now have a pretty thick girth to show nicely in a nice pot (But that's 2-3 years away).

I'm looking forward to seeing how the fall color turns out since the move.   I will take some pictures if I can :).   

Miyasama Yatsubusa Kaede

I discovered a fungus /mushroom like pest growing off of my Taiwanese Trident plant that's been field growing for quite sometimes now.     I am worried this is parasite is not a good news, and I need to do something about it.  I might be wrong and this might turns out to be some sort of Ecto Mycorrhizal fungus which would establish some sort of symbiotic relationship with the plant, but highly unlikely ... I need to investigate and fast!

So over two years ago I purchased two Miyasama Yatsubusa  from eBay.  They are also known as Taiwanese Trident Maple.   They are slow grower (well, seems to grow fast but trunk hasn't thickened up much more than what you see here in this photo).   Even though they are slow to thicken, they are pretty resilient.    I haven't been taking good care of them yet they have just been growing fine.   

Acer buergerianum 'Miyasama Yatsubusa

Acer buergerianum 'Miyasama Yatsubusa

... well, to my dismay, this Winter was too harsh on lot of my trees, including the one growing over rock :( ... my favorite of the two :((

                                 shouldn't have left them to fend for themselves (especially the one in the ceramic pot).   I was growing it on a live rock and had very little soil (my goal was to transfer to a bonsai training pot).   


Anyhow, she hasn't risen from her sleep and I'm afraid she won't ever. :(  I definitely regret it as it was looking so nice around the rock!   :(

On the other hand, the one field growing maybe showing sign of better health.   Lot of weed growing around the base and I am still just letting it grow free.   I will just have to pay close attention this guy since I lost the other one.  

Acer buergerianum 'Miyasama Yatsubusa

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Acer Palmatum Ornatum

I have seen those beautiful photo of the Japanese Maple from Portland's Japanese Garden.  Two that were striking bright Orange my favorites but I like them all.  Ever since I saw those photos and also a youtube video showing those amazing cascade style sea of orange, I wanted in my collection.   But alas, nobody actually know for sure what kind are those.  I think after some major digging, those turned out:  Acer Palmatum Ornatum variety.    Anyway, I started to look for them everywhere but what I found was some bad news.  Due to lesser demands, there aren't a lot of Oranatum out there.   I started to reach out to various maple vendors and previous contacts.   I even contacted the Portland Japanese Garden and they gave me some links, references.  Finally one of my previous maple suppler told me about a plant he had in his collection that's probably the kind I'm looking for.  Anyway, I am not sure if this is the same kind or not, the important thing is that I like this color a lot.   Over the years, with good care, this may look very fascinating.

Where are they now

So I haven't had much time to play with those Miyasama Trident I bought.  Actually I planned on number of things, that ended up not working out.  I planted one on the ground and kept one in a pot over a small rock (my kid found it during our FL vacation).  Rock is not large enough, but I figured what the heck.

Honestly, I haven't kept them in the best of condition they deserve.  I am surrounded by clay soil and poor watering condition, so they didn't grow as thick as one would hope.  At any rather, each season, they shoot out quite a bit of growth that I had to trim closer to Spring.

Anyway, this is how they look today