Arctic Jade Korean Maple Hasn't Leafed Out Yet - May 2026

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Last Summer, I planted our second Korean Maple tree named the Arctic Jade from Iseli Nursery that is part of their Jack Frost Collection of cold-hardy trees.  In late May, I posted the first "Getting to Know" post about the tree that highlighted the features of this tree.  And, in early June, I planted it in the backyard.  The tree seemed to do great in its first season and put on a nice Fall show.  Here's a full-tree picture on November first and here's a close-up of the colors in the foliage a few days later.  

This Spring, however...has been a different story.  The other Korean Maple - Northern Glow (planted in 2024) arrived as expected and has leaf'd out as it should have the past few weeks.  But, the Arctic Jade Korean Maple is stuck in neutral.  Just two leaves, down near the base of the tree.  Here, below are some photos showing this tree.  First up, the pair of leaves you can see below.  Also note...the root flare at the base showing that I planted this tree 'high enough' and didn't bury the rootflare.  

One of the ways to know if a tree is dead is to 'check for green' under the bark of the tree.  Taking your fingernail and scraping away reveals if the tree has 'green' and is alive.  The interesting thing about this tree is that NOT ONLY does a fingernail scrape reveal green, but just looking at the top part of the trunk and the exterior of the trunk appears green.  See below for a look at the leader (seems green, right?):

The tree also set buds last Fall.  Below is a look at some of them:

And here below is a view of the naked skeleton of this tree without leaves:


Is this dead?  I'm not sure.  I would guess that it isn't going to make it, but I'm not sure what happened.  It was happy last year and went all the way until leaf-drop in what seemed like a healthy manner, but this Spring it just didn't "wake up".  

The issue that I'm staring down is the one-year warranty that is provided by The Growing Place in Naperville.  They warranty all their trees for one year.  I'd like to hope that this tree will *eventually* wake up, so I'd like to just leave it in place and wait.  But, I'm staring-down the one-year mark.  

I'm going to give it a couple more weeks then right before the warranty date, if it isn't showing signs of progress, I'll have to dig it up and bring it in for them to look-over.  

I thought the Jack Frost Collection from Iseli Nursery was going to be the way forward for me with ornamental maples, but I might now be one-for-two

Location: Downers Grove, IL, USA

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