Katsura maple

[baron]

I bought this tree a little more over a year ago, because I wanted an orange leave maple to add to my collection.
Unfortunately the sun hadn't been kind and some of the foliage had turned to a crisp by the time I picked it up.



Last year during the winter I did some work on the branches; wiring and removing the ones I thought were too heavy in the top.


Compared to any of my other maples the Katsura is by far the first one to wake up after dormancy. Even the Kashima or Kiyohime's need a few more weeks.
And yes the spring foliage is nice



Lightgreen after


Late spring/early summer I tried a thread craft by using one of the secondary branches off the back of the tree.
Still don't know if it worked...

 

[baron]

Because of the warm winter this year the tree is waking up even earlier and the weather forecast suggest no freezes the coming week so I decided to do a repot now.


Mainly because I hadn't seen the roots yet and to give it a more flat surface to grow on so the nebari and base could develop better.


Not too bad, all spread out evenly except for the big one higher up.


Big root gone.

 

[baron]

Only had two options for now.



I should've positioned it more off center to the right
Guess we'll fix that in a few years..



Top of the tree still needs more work...

 

[j evans]

I like it, good start.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Very nice.
The waking up early, for me was the reason I gave up on Japanese maples. They would always wake up weeks, sometimes months before last frost, requiring the nightly dance, moving the tree under cover to avoid a frost. Invariably at some point, I would forget, and slowly lost the few maples I owned due to late, hard freezes.

But your climate is different is mine. Very nice, I hope it does well for you.

 

[AlainK]

Compared to any of my other maples the Katsura is by far the first one to wake up after dormancy.

Right, here too it's among the first one, if not the first one to wake up. 'Orange Dream', which looks very similar buds out at about the same time. I don't know how genetically close they are though.

 

[LanceMac10]

Katsura really does have great spring color......and always the first to emerge from dormancy!!

 

[baron]

Getting closer to opening

 

[baron]

Yes very pretty!

 

[baron]

The top seems very vigorous, should I cut back the strong shoots already? Or better to let them grow a little longer seen as it was repotted only a few weeks ago?

 

[MrWunderful]

Yeah I would cut them back if the big first set of leaves has hardened off.

 

[Cascading-Echinocactus]

Cut back now, then start bifurcating the buds as soon as they open up enough for you to do it and keep doing it throughout the season. At the end of this season you will have a beautiful specimen tree.