The yellow of these leaves is awesome! I haven't seen cultivars labelled Aocha Nishiki or Seicha (or even Aoba Nishiki) here in NZ. Are there any other cultivars that have a fall yellow colour like this?
Re: Acer palmatum 'Aocha Nishiki' / 'Seicha' Perhaps A.p. 'Lutescens' for a larger tree, or 'Okushimo'. A.p. 'Green Elf' for a dwarf. A.p. 'Beni hoshi' is a red leaved variety that turns a nice gold in the fall. For a thread-leaf, try A.p. 'Kinshi'. For a dissectum, it's hard to beat the gold of A.p. 'Sekimori'.
Re: Acer palmatum 'Aocha Nishiki' / 'Seicha' Thanks K4, I'll look out for them. I'm thinking of planting 3 maples (to start with!) and want a nice variety of autumn colour. I have my (sick) Osakazuki for red, am thinking I'll get a hogyoku and then something yellow/gold. Also thinking Sango Kaku for that red winter bark though... Too many choices I'll need a bigger garden...
Re: Acer palmatum 'Aocha Nishiki' / 'Seicha' You might want to look at some of the more dwarf varieties if you're short on space. Osakazuki and Hogyoku both get large. Sekimori would be more manageable and be a nice contrast, but there are many small cultivars out there that are very striking and would not eat up your entire garden. Too many to mention all in one thread, but my absolute favorite dwarf is Komachi hime.
Conversation was starting to get a little too far off-topic for the photo gallery thread, thought it would be best to give this discussion its own thread. Walking around Westonbirt last autumn, two of the best with yellow/gold fall colours I noticed were 'Shinobuga oka' and 'Mirte' (more yellow/orange) :
'Aocha nishiki' has wonderful color but for me I have had lots of issue with die back on mine. One of the trees I have found with great yellow fall color is Ap 'Shin obogn oka'. I bought one from a collecter in Olympia WA but have not found much about the tree. Last year I was impressed with the yellow fall color of Ap 'Ki hachijo' .
My Mirte, which has the same parent as the Westonbirt plant, stays much more pink to orange than yellow. It gets much more sun than the plant above, so this is a great example of how exposition (and maybe other factors) can affect fall color. -E
I don't know if this matters, however, my photos of " Aocha nishiki " from the US National Arboretum were taken in May... Here's those photos again: Dax
