I was planning to order an Acer shirasawanum 'Moonrise', but after a bit of research, it seems that 'Autumn Moon' might be a better choice for three seasons of color, though I do love the spring foliage of 'Moonrise'. Any advice? The spot I have in mind for it is mostly sunny, but shaded from the mid- to late afternoon sun. Thanks, Jane
I've thought about this question a lot. I ended up ordering Moonrise rather than Autumn moon in 2012. I'm happy with that for a couple of reasons-- 1) It holds its spring color for a very long time. Well into mid-summer where I have it, in shade. 2) I've read repeatedly that it's a faster, stronger grower compared to Autumn Moon, which some people say stays very small with frequent die-back. My Moonrise seems to be putting on good height with good form, and in the two harshest winters we've seen in the past couple of decades here in 5b, it didn't experience any die back at all. The fall color I saw was not great-- just blah yellow, but I think it's partially because I have it in a bed of cinnamon ferns. The cinnamon ferns like it damp, but for Moonrise's best color the soil needs to dry out a bit before fall. I either have dead ferns or blah Moonrise color. I love Moonrise. I went through a period thinking I'd made the wrong choice, but now that I've read into comparisons for a year or so, I'm glad I chose Moonrise. The color is very strong and pretty, and I prefer the way Moonrise looks during its second push of summer growth. My Moonrise looks like this right now...
Thanks, it really is stunning in the yard right now, and it continues to be for the next many weeks. If anyone's curious, I got it from bonzaibob on ebay. In our climate (5b), it seems difficult to find a bright green Japanese maple that has the dual combination of being very hardy and having great spring color. So many of the brightly colored maples are either sensitive to cold or turn a muddy green in the summer. I'm very happy to have found Moonrise.
Autumn Moon stays quite orange all summer given enough light. It also has leaves more in keeping with 'Aureum', that is less dissected. The gorgeous 'Moonrise' above looks more like 'Palmitifolium' to me. I posted a picture of my AM to the spring 2015 thread, but am at a different location right now so don't have access to those photos easily. Autumn Moon is indeed a rather difficult maple in my experience, after years of not really growing much I decided it was in a bad spot (although a japonicum cultivar is doing OK there now) and pulled it to a pot. After 3 years in the resort hotel it put on growth both top and bottom, so last year I moved it back to a spot with better summer moisture. It's doing "OK" but time will tell, there certainly isn't much new growth this spring, and there was some of the typical dieback. Based on the pics above, I definitely want to put a Moonrise in, looks really beautiful. -E
