- Well one of my
favorite specimen plants
to use in a garden is Japanese maple because they
come in such a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors. So I'm here at Moore
& Moore Garden Center with Megan who is going to
take us on a little walk through their
section of Japanese, selection of Japanese
maples and tell us about some of her favorites. - Sure and we've got
four of my favorites, two of which I've already bought and the other two I'm planning
on purchasing this week. So my favorite, to start with, is this Red Pygmy. I just cannot get enough of
how thin this foliage is. But being a thinner
foliage like that it's going to need some
shade during the day. - [Troy] Okay, so maybe
morning sun, would be a good, think dogwood, redbud,
that kind of thing with morning sun,
afternoon shade. Or maybe high dappled
shade all day long. - [Megan] Yes, exactly. It needs some sun
throughout the day to help keep that red
color, which it's going to lose a little bit of the red as the summer progresses
and the plant matures. But definitely needs some
shade throughout the day to keep it from
burning on the edges. - And the one that's
over here next to me is a dwarf. - It is. - That will stay
small its entire life. So this one is called Kiyohime. - [Megan] Yes, and I really
like the little red edge that that one produces
on the new foliage and then matures to
a nicer dark green. But those are going
to stay shorter, about four by four
probably, at maturity. So that one can even be a really
good specimen for a bonsai. - Yeah, if you were
interested in doing a bonsai, or again, as a
container specimen, - [Megan] Yes. - [Troy] Most of
these Japanese maples are really cold-hardy, so they can be put into
larger containers as they grow and they'll live through the
winter just fine outdoors, in our climate. - Yeah, I have several of
the smaller Japanese maples planted in containers and
I under plant them with miniature hostas. - Oh fun, fun. And then what about the
one that's over by you? I love that big broad leaf. - Yeah, so this is kind of
a medium size at maturity. This is called Ruby Ridge, and she's going to get
about 10 to 12 feet tall and five to six feet wide,
but the big broad foliage is the stand out on this plant. And it's going to keep that
ruby color most of the summer. - [Troy] Okay. Now it almost looks like it
has kind of a weeping habit to me, is that going to be the
case as it grows older, or- - [Megan] It's kind of arching
and a little bit spreading but it's not a very wide plant. It only gets about five to
six feet wide, at maturity. - [Troy] So again, a great
plant for smaller gardens. - [Megan] Yeah, definitely. - And then back, at the
very back of the table here, a really interesting one
that looks very vigorous. It's just new growth on it
already is ten inches long, at least, maybe even
a little bit more. - [Megan] That's Ilarien. The highlight on this one is
the new foliage that comes out kind of a pinkish color
and then that pink will change to white
later in the season. And as it continues
to get new growth, you're still going to
get new pink foliage on the new growth. So you've got a variety of color continuing throughout
the summer. - [Troy] Right, and that's
one of the great things about a lot of the
Japanese maples, is that they get this initial
spring flesh of growth, and then that hardens
off and then they'll get another summer flush
and sometimes even
a late summer flush. So you get, if you have
this nice red color on the tips as it flushes
out in the spring, or this interesting pink
and white variegation, you'll get several
fleshes of that through the course of the
season, which is a nice thing. So they are great
under story trees, they're great small yard trees - Mmm-hmm - And one that just came to
mind that I know you have here that I want to mention
is Peaches and Cream. - Oh I love that. - That's one of my favorites. I have it in the garden at home. It's just leafing out and the
color of it is so spectacular. - [Megan] Yeah, and
it really does make you think of peaches and
cream as a dessert treat. - [Troy] Yeah, it's pink
and cream as it leafs out with interesting
veining in the leaves. - [Megan] It can get 12
to 15 feet at maturity but it's slower
growing than others. The more variegation
on the leaf, I found, can cause them to
be slower growing. - [Troy] Sure. - [Meghan] So that one
is going to take a while to get mature and really,
I've only ever seen them maybe six or
eight feet tall. I've never seen one full grown. - Well the other thing
about Japanese maples, we talk about these mature
sizes and their rate of growth and all of that, there
are so many, of course, in Japan that have been used
for bonsai over the years, and the fact that
they're used for bonsai, tells you that they're
really fine with being pruned and if you do that
in an artistic way, you can keep them to almost
any size you want them, for a longer period of time,
just with careful pruning. - Yeah, I hear a lot
of customers tell me that they're worried or
nervous about pruning Japanese maples and I tell
them that if you do it at the right time of year, there's no need to
be nervous about it. - [Troy] Right. - I would, just do some
research and I've found that I have the best
results if I prune as they're getting
some spring growth, after our last chance of frost but I enjoy pruning
my Japanese maple. I find it to be very relaxing. - [Troy] I do too. I enjoy going out and doing
that and like you said, just as they're leafing out
because then I know for sure what's dead and what's not. They're always, you
know, it seems to me that they're always a few
little twigs after the winter that are brown and dead
and need to come out. When they're leafing out,
it's really easy to tell. This has a leaf
on it, it's alive. This is brown and no
leaves, it's dead. And you know you take
out any crossing branches or anything that's just
unusual and you can hardly go wrong. - Right and just
cleaning up the trunk and even choosing some
limbs to keep that add more character to the tree, rather
than just a straight limb. Unless you're going
for that look. So it just kind of depends on
what you want for each tree. - [Troy] Absolutely. Well, these Japanese
maples come, again, in such a wide variety of
sizes, shapes and colors. There's one for
almost every garden. Megan, thank you so much for
giving us a little of your time today and introducing us
to some of these beauties. - [Megan] Thank you
so much for coming. (upbeat music) - [Narrator] For
inspiring garden tours, growing tips and garden
projects, visit our website at volunteergardener.org
or on YouTube at the Volunteer
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