Japanese Maple- Who says some can't be grown in full sun!

[drew33998]

Well, As I was lugging along with my gf with our new "hobby" that I am so thrilled about(jogging) I noticed some Japanese maples growing along the Jacksonville Riverwalk. This was very surprising as they are in full sun and no protection from the winds and brackish water spray of the river. The only shade that they receive is about 5 o'clock on from the tower that is on their west side. I thought it was shocking to see such old maple in this location. Anyone else impressed? There are about 7 in total.

 

[RKatzin]

Hi Drew, just saw this post. I have many Japanese Maples growing in my tree garden and they get full sun all day long. They do very well as long as I don't let them get dried out in August when it's hitting triple digits.

 

[Dav4]

All my potted palmatums get 4 plus hours of mid day GA sun and look great until mid August and I've got landscape trees in full sun from 11 to 5 that look great all summer provided we've had adequate rain.

 

[bonsaiBlake]

Killed two of them out here even with plenty of water in zone5b. I think it has more to do with adaquate himidiy vs. sun light. Though we do have 300+ days of sun per year, it's also extremely dry, hardly ever getiing above 20% humidity. Keeping maples in partial shade, at least for most varieties, is the only way they will thrive.

 

[edprocoat]

That is the neat thing about Florida, it gets so much humidity that many trees that should not survive there do pretty good. Its like they get misted each evening and again in the morning.

ed

 

[bonsaiBlake]

But I got pines(tropical envy)

 

[R_F]

I'm not surprised at all after discovering a 50 plus year old Japanese maple living here in central Florida Zone 9b . It's been in the ground and growing in full sun at what used to be the oldest business in Lake Mary FL for 50 years plus. It was a nursery and sadly they recently closed for good. I was shocked when I learned about it. I talked to the owner who also happened to be the original owner of the nursery, and he explained that he grew all of his Japanese maples from a batch of seeds he got from Japan. Some of them couldn't handle the heat of our summers but some did and that was what he continued to use to propagate from. I went to land where the nursery used to be this past weekend and took a couple cuttings from that old maple in the ground. Fingers crossed...

 

[kirk@localbonsai.com]

One of the great benefits of bonsai- our trees are in portable pots! I'll move my trees in and out of full sun depending on the weather and time of year. This time of year, I try to give them as much sun as possible. Once the summer comes, then I givem more shade.

 

[Nybonsai12]

This one in my yard gets plenty of sun. I don't think I see too many this big either, especially on what I believe could be considered the spreading oak style.

 

[gergwebber]

Here in the central valley they prefer filtered shade in the afternoon. That said, the ones in full sun do well until mid july-august. Its not that they can't take the sun, its just that a good 25 % of the upper canopy gets fried. I think that regardless of climate or zone, they are a best suited to understory living, unless of course its under a super dense canopy like fruitless mulberry or something that's allelopathic like black walnut.