Firefly Japanese Maple - Winter Dieback - Spring Color - May 2024

Last year (2023), I bought three one-gallon Japanese Maples from Mr. Maple and planted them in mostly-shade spots in our backyard.  Of the three, two of them died back almost all the way to the graft.  One of them had a lot of die-back at the top, but re-emerged this Spring with enough foliage to consider it 'alive'.  That one - that survived the best - is the Firefly Japanese Maple.  Acer plamatum 'Firefly'.   Firefly has what is known as 'reticulated variegation' and that's showing this Spring. See below for a couple of photos:

In that second photo, you can see the dead stems that rise above the foliage.  I'd say that more than HALF of the tree died-back, but based on the foliage, this CERTAINLY is NOT the grafted rootstock producing leaves.  This *is* Firefly.  

I can't say the same thing for the Seriyu and First Ghost Japanese Maples from Mr. Maple dot com.  Despite giving them 'Five dollar holes', baby'ing them with water and seeing what appeared to be good establishing vibes (lots of foliage in their first year), they both didn't come back after Winter.  

We had a mild Winter this year, but I lost a handful of things that I'm surprised by - including both of those trees.  The Seriyu JM is one that I'd like to try again.