Red-headed Stepchild Trident

I bought a really interesting tree that I wanted to share from the MidAtlantic Bonsai Societies Spring Festival this weekend.


This trident maple was grown by Julian Adams from around 100 seeds that Valavanis harvested from his Acer buergerianum 'Arakawa.' From what he told me, he got one tree to produce the rough bark he was after. Valavanis references it here:


The Mother Tree


Julian's Winning Seed

Dang ,You bought that too ??

Although the other 99 did not produce the bark he was after, they have some interesting characteristics compared to a standard A.B. This red-headed stepchild has an interesting orange/cinnamon color to the bark that I haven't seen with tridents.

Standard A.B.


Red-Headed Stepchild


Also, according to Julian it has a bright red fall color like it's parent. Fingers crossed that it is as beautiful as the color that I have seen online!

After it grows more, my plan is to air layer off the top to make into a shohin this season.


Next season I will decide if I can play with the angle to work with the whole base, or air layer again.

Shogun610 said:

Dang ,You bought that too ??

Click to expand...

I just bought the trident that you saw in person. Those are pictures of the tree the seeds came from, and the one success Julian had.

More "red-headed" traits


Standard A.B.


Red-Headed Stepchild

Now that the tree has acclimated and put on some solid growth, I made some more branch selections.


Instead of layering this season, I decided to let the wounds heal and grow out the top trunk section in the ground for 1-2 seasons.


This is my tentative vision for the shohin I am making out of the top of this stump.