Emperor 1 Japanese Maple - Year Two Summer - August 2024

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In late Spring/early Summer 2023, I planted a small (1.5 gallon) Emperor 1 Japanese Maple - Acer palmatum in what I call the 'kitchen curved bed'.  Right behind/amongst some Fanal Astilbes.  By last Fall, it was showing a little bit of new growth and put on new foliage.  A good sign.  This Spring, it was one of a few trees that I wrapped in tulle - to protect from cicadas.  Doing that, wasn't great for the tree and damaged some of the tips of the tree along the way.  No big deal because the trade-off of a few broken small branches vs. the tree getting killed by the cicadas seemed worth taking.

This was also a spot where I did a 'garden edit'.  Moving a border of Ajuga Chocolate Chip in and widening out the front of the bed this Spring.  

I removed the netting more than a month ago and today, the tree is rebounding a little bit.  Below is a look at the current state of our second Emperor 1 Japanese Maple:

Looking forward to this one filling up and out and providing a little dark foliage color in this all-green bed.  

Location: Downers Grove, IL, USA

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