What counts as full sun hardy?

Discussion in 'Maples' started by MarkVIIIMarc, Sep 1, 2014.

  1. MarkVIIIMarc

    MarkVIIIMarc Active Member

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    Just thinking about how these trees get rated for full or part sun. I consider myself to be pretty in the middle of the country where if something is zone 6 and full sun hardy it should count me in. Not like I am at some elevation in Arizona or someplace with a zone 6 winter but a hot arid summer.

    Please say they aren't tested in a cloudy London climate.

    It was my purple ghost that has me thinking btw. It is not dead but gets pretty crispy by August now that I treat it as an established tree. I swear it says sun or shade on the Bucholz website.
     
  2. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    I'd assume they're tested in Japan's cloudy, wet monsoon summers ;-)

    They are naturally adapted to being woodland understorey trees too, growing beneath towering Sugi and so on - none is going to be really happy in full sun.
     
  3. maf

    maf Generous Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    Some of the other countries/states where Japanese maples are grown for the trade in significant quantities are Oregon, New Zealand and Holland. Buchholz introduced 'Purple Ghost' and is in Oregon too, presumably his ratings are based on Oregon summers.
     
  4. ROEBUK

    ROEBUK Generous Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    Interesting observation with regards to your Purple Ghost, must admit i don't put to much into what the planting instructions says on JM they all seem to have their own traits on where they prefer to grow.I have trees planted in full sun which according to the "rule book" should be in the shade and vice versa,and all seem to be growing quite happily. A lot comes down to pure trial and error which i have found over the years. But i have noted the Purple Ghost's do require the added protection in which you can give to them.

    Two years ago i purchased two young grafts and left them in totally different areas of the garden in pots to see where they would prefer planting and both showed quite worrying amounts of leaf scorch,decided to plant behind my workshop in the early part of this year with limited sunlight until the late afternoon and needless to say both are thriving and putting on good growth and new branching.

    First picture is of one of the PG the other tree is four foot to the left, but if you look at pic two you will see that iv'e used the large Pendulum Julian to act as an umberella and windbreak you can just see the PG in the bottom left hand corner and it's working well.

    Have quite alot of young trees in pots which are all placed either under or to the side of large established trees and these give invaluble protection to the youngsters.

    Where i live in the UK it's basically zone 8/9 and we are not renown in this country for long hot summer days anything over 80f is a heat wave here :) saying that we have had a very nice summer this year and the trees have certainly benefited from this.
     

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  5. MarkVIIIMarc

    MarkVIIIMarc Active Member

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    Thank you all for your observations. With the conifers and magnolia grandiflora I have noticed the differences in tolerance of sun or wind in different climates and the different expectations of how a plant will grow. Obviously the same is true for Japanese maples.

    I was getting pretty cynical about these "full sun" labels as being intentionally misleading. Turns out they are most likely true but for the climate the plant was developed in.
     

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