Mr. Maple Japanese Maples - First-Time Order - June 2023

A couple of days ago, I posted about how I planted an unknown Japanese Maple that I bought from the orange big box store.  I know, I know.  But...it was just something I did.  That is the fourth Japanese Maple in our backyard, but it also was the 'gateway' to even more.  My research into what that tree could be turned into a lost few days digging around the Web.  In terms of numbers....This Spring (2023), I've now planted three Japanese Maple trees - a small Emperor 1, that unknown red laceleaf upright and this small, low-grafted Waterfall Japanese Maple.  

Doing the research about those three Japanese Maples on the Web lead me to a new (to me) place:  Mr. Maple.  Their site is MrMaple.com where they sell a huge variety of Japanese Maples in 1-gallon nursery containers.  

The guys at Mr. Maple make it easy to sort by growing zone (I'm 5b), sun-exposure, species (Acer palmatum, Acer japonicum and Acer shirasawanum, etc) and habit (upright vs. weeping vs. columnar vs. shrub) and they provide a variety of photos with each tree.

They have a shipping calculator, so you can sort of 'play' with your cart by adding a few trees, doing a shipping calculation then seeing what happens if you add/remove even more.  I opted for three small trees with this first order.  Shipping was a killer at $30+, but I went ahead anyway.

There were so many available, so it was hard to narrow down to the (first) trees that I wanted to add to our yard.  The three trees that I picked were: Acer palmatum 'Firefly' Japanese Maple, Acer palmatum 'First Ghost' Japanese Maple, and Acer palmatum 'Seiryu' Japanese Maple.

They arrived in this side-by-side cardboard box and were really well-packed.

They're all different and I'll post details about each of them in a separate post for each planting.  For now, I've put them inside a weighted larger nursery container and have placed them around the garden to see how they'd work in various spots.  First up, the Seiryu - an upright green laceleaf Japanese Maple.  Below are a few photos showing the state we received this small 1# tree from Mr. Maple.

Next (below) is the Firefly - Acer palmatum.  It is the smallest of the three, but (I believe) the most rare of the three, too.

And finally, below is the First Ghost, a variegated Japanese Maple.  It is the largest of the three that I ordered and (I think), I might train up even taller as it is (I think) a somewhat 'upright" maple.  See below for some First Ghost Japanese Maple photos from our Mr. Maple order:

I'm planning on leaving these in their containers for a couple of days while I figure out where to plant them and make sure the sun exposure works for them.  Maybe I'll go get a few mounds of wood chips to apply/mound over their containers to keep them from drying out while I decide.  

That post from last December - when I mused about adding another (or two) Japanese Maples sure seems to have kicked-off a little trend here.  With these three new (to me) JMs, along with the two Emperor 1's, the Waterfall, Inaba Shadire and the unknown laceleaf, we now have EIGHT Japanese Maples in the garden.  Plus seven in one season.  Pretty big jump.