The Japanese Maple Bonsai is a good pick for a newbie in bonsai. It is both easy to grow and take care of, as well as being a fast grower. This maple is similar to the Norway maple, though its leaves are more deeply lobed than its Norwegian cousin.
There are various varieties and the leaves are so colorful, especially in the spring and fall when the leaves alter their color. The red leaves that the Japanese maple proudly displays in the summer increase their brightness in the fall. Its trunk and branches show different hues of red and green.
Indeed the Japanese maple trees are valued because of their foliage, and this is one of the main features that make them a beautiful bonsai tree. There are some varieties that sport gorgeous foliage like gold in the fall. The Japanese Bloodgood maple tree has reddish-purple serrated star shaped leaves showing in the summer and in the fall they turn crimson, thus the name. This particular tree likes the sun, although some semi-shade is good for it. The Japanese Crimson Queen maple tree is a dwarf that is also suited to making a good bonsai tree.
Maple bonsai have a good response to the leaves being trimmed, being hardy, and that facilitates creating a great branch structure for the bonsai. They are simple to root from cuttings and also from layering and respond well to both methods. A warning though the red leaf maple does have the problem of weak roots, so if even a small problem occurs the tree can expire. Therefore, red leaf maples are usually grafted into normal rootstocks. The Japanese red maples are normally grafted into the green leaf rootstock because they do better this way than when grafted to their own roots. When selecting one from a nursery examine the graft to see how well it has healed so you’ll have a good tree for a bonsai.
To select a Japanese maple for bonsai a good diameter is four or more inches. This diameter allows for training of various styles. Also, it is a more economical tree to buy. Growing them from seedlings is easy, when buying a seedling that has been started it should be four to six inches in height. When considering seedlings, go with strong ones that have big and low internodes. This enables you to have a bigger stock, which should make the lowest branch on the bonsai be about six inches up.
Put the seedlings in small vessels, they should be pruned down so the roots can populate the containers and the growth slows before making a decision on the new trunk line. This is a good way to begin the Japanese maple bonsai and it should help produce supple rounded lines. The red seedlings are good candidates for medium or large bonsai.
The Japanese maple bonsai is strong and hardy enough that even when neglected if put in caring and capable hands it can be nurtured back to life, and still be trained by wiring into a new shaped. But if too much leaf and branch matter have been left to grow then pruning and a lot of wiring before the tree gains strength could be too stressful. For this reason it is best when resurrecting a tree to let it have a period of rest during its dormant period and start again in the new season.
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A rose garden is one of the most beautiful types of gardens. However, since roses are thorny and delicate by nature, this type of garden is one of the most challenging to design and to maintain.
Hi in Hungary Bonsaiklub!
Hirth Janos
Hi, I’m a gardener near Seattle, Washington, USA
I have hundreds of maple seedlings and am going to do some early training to create bonsai for myself and to sell.
I’d like to find some photos of step-by-step for training and shaping of very young Japanese maple bonsai. I have the book by Peter Adams and it is a great resource. However, it doesn’t show much EARLY training and shaping.
Can anyone here recommend a resource?
Thank you!
Crane, you will need to go through a series of (grow, chop, grow, chop) to create a decent bonsai. Let them grow out untill they reach a trunk thickness equal to what you want it to end up. After this, chop it at 1/3 the height you want the tree…say you want it 24″ tall, chop it at 8″ from the soil…repeat this process of growing it out to create a smooth taper up the tree then you can begin branch structure…the more time you spend working these trees, the more you can sell them for…a young JM may fetch $20, but grow it like I mentioned in about 10 years you can be selling these for $400 at least
Hello there!
I’ve got a lovely Japanese Maple in my front yard that I’m thinking of taking a seed or a cutting from to start as a Bonsai…Thanks for all the information here!
Orion
Interesting. I bought a Juniper bonsai from a swap meet a few weeks back. After looking around the internet, I think I bought tree branch masquerading as a bonsai! Oh well.
I have a question…would a Japanese Maple respond well to a grow light instead of full sunlight?
Hi Mark, no one else has responded so I thought I’d share my view on your question. Bonsai trees are natural trees just stunted in size, would you grow a tree under a lamp?
It might work but my view is let it see the real sun now and again, especially since maples are usually an outdoor bonsai tree species.
Let me know how you get on if you do it.