These are green maples and are sometimes called mountain maples or smooth maples. Their natural homes are South Korea, Japan, and China. They are stout, generally hardy and therefor healthy trees. Their leaves reduce nicely making good bonsai trees. They’re suited primarily for single bonsai, although they are good for forest plantings and clump style.
What is clump style? It is a style with numerous trunks, which grow around a centralized spot. The trunks connect to each other so this style differs from the forest presentation in this respect. This is a classic bonsai style and is otherwise called grove style. The several trees are put in one pot, which gives a forest illusion and you usually use an odd number of trees to conform to the Japanese art and show respect. The clump style is also different than the raft style in that in raft styling the trunks are placed along a shared spine. In the raft style the tree is made to look like one that the wind has blown over and the surface branches keep growing as new trunks, because the underside has rooted.
The tree produces tiny flowers whose sepals are colored purple or red with white petals. As with most maples, if not all, over sunning can scorch the leaves. The leaves have five to nine lobes and are yellow in the summer becoming purple or red during the fall. It is a very airy and dainty maple and likes part shade in the height of summer or curtainly not direct sun. In places with climates like that of England’s then it should take the full sun without any problems. In the winter if outside it should be placed on the northern side of the home as it thinks that spring has come if it gets a bit warm. The problem is that it could be killed by a frost if it doesn’t stay dormant until spring really comes. Being on the northern side of the house it doesn’t think spring has arrived until hopefully any spring freezes have finished. This way it won’t sprout new leaves too soon.
To propagate it, asexual ways have to be used like budding, grafting, air-layering or cuttings. A good way to propagate with a cutting is to put it in a small pot with moistened soil and place a plastic bag over it and seal the bag or use a zip-lock. Left in indirect light for nine months it will grow roots. No more water should be needed while in a sealed bag as it becomes a tiny greenhouse.
The fertilization should be done in late winter or early spring; the soil needs to be well-balanced. It can develop a disease called chlorosis if it doesn’t have sufficient iron, if this disease occurs the leaves become a sickly yellow color. It will remind you of the look of jaundice. Re-pot it during this time period too. It needs damp soil, but not really wet. If the soil gets too dry it can cause the leaf to burn when exposed to sunlight.
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