Since the last topic under Weather 2001 was Japanese Maples, I'll open this with a pic I took 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Mine is just the basic palmatum, as far as I know. I've heard tell that the wider the leaf, the less likely the leaves will fry in our hot summers. They need damp roots and shade here(or 1/2 day shade), so its hard to get really good color on those that need sun to do their best. I'm interviewing a J. maple grower this week, so expect to learn a lot more.

Maggie, How long does your tree keep its red color?

I can't wait to read about your interview! When Don and I visited his family in Connecticut, we went to a nursery and talked to a nurseryman about growing Japanese maples in New England. (Don has thoughts of retiring to New England.)

It's already turned purple-y Susan. The spring red doesn't last too long for us. I am wondering if it last longer in cooler climes such as yours and Terry's? When I said 'needs sun to go red', I should have specified those fire engine red ones and said 'in the fall', after that phrase.

When we were posting autumn tree turnings last fall, I thought I had missed catching my little guy in his autumn color. But found it today, while looking for the pic above. (Lars and I have 2 totally diff filing systems on more than one puter... its very annoying!)

That is an oak leaf hydrangea in foreground.

Oh, and the article won't be on the comestroll page Sus, because it is for a different column in the paper, but I'll see what I can do. ;-)

Maggie, I didn't know that oakleaf hydrangea had that nice fall color. I've always wanted one, but for some reason Don doesn't like them as much as I do.

It's hard to say about red color in Japanese maples. Some named cultivars are supposed to keep their red color longer. In our climate red Japanese maples have better color in full sun. I must add that "full sun" here means "what sun there is." Cloudy days seem to be the norm.

Yep, our shade is like your 'sun' ,,, just like our spring is like your 'summer'!! Gardening here is like doing it on a totally different planet, compared to where most of those gardening books were written, which is what inspires me to write about what goes on here.

Oh that oak leaf is a wonderful thing! Some autumns, the leaves range from yellow to black and everything in between. Let's see if we can talk Mr. Sus into one... furry silver spring buds, apple green leaves, then white domes, back to a shapely green form through summer ,,, glorius fall colors, then peeling bark on graceful bare limbs and in winter.