Top 20 Japanese Maples for the Shade Garden | MrMaple Show Podcast

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Today on the Mr. Maple Show podcast, Matt and Tim count down the top 20 gamechanging maples for the shadyiest corners of your yard. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Kichi y’all and welcome to the Mr. Maple Show. Guys, today we are throwing some shade. We’re going to be talking about some of our favorite maples for shady spots. So, these trees could do good in sun as well, but these are some of our favorite choices for a garden that has a lot of shade. Hey guys, I’m Tim. That’s my brother Matt. We’re maple.com. We put out a weekly podcast all about Japanese maples on your favorite podcast platform. So, make sure you find us. Give us five star reviews. Helps more people find us. And y’all, we’re Mr. Maple.com. We’re a family mail order business. We ship directly to your door and we do the largest selection of Japanese maples of anywhere in the United States. I’ve been seeing a lot of our listeners give us five star reviews on Google, too. And I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. So guys, today we’re going to be hopping in. We’re going to be talking about maples for shade gardens. So ones that are in shadier spots. Uh basically, if you got a high shade garden, a lot of people say, “What are the best trees for that?” Now, Japanese maples in their native habitat in Japan. We’ve went and studied them in Japan in their native habitat before. Um and they they’re kind of understory trees traditionally. Now that we’ve talked a ton about Japanese maples that do great in sunspots, you know, where you know your heavier sun exposure. We talk a good deal about that. So today we’re going to talk about some of the best trees for that darker, shadier garden. You’ve got a high oak canopy around your house. Everybody listens jealous to you right now. By the way, everybody everybody’s like, “Man, they got the shade. That’s what everybody wants.” Uh but we’re going to talk about some of the trees that perform the best in that shadier setting. If you’re a shady character, we’ve got your top 20 Japanese maples coming at you today. So get excited, y’all. You know, shade is Japanese maples are understory trees. They grow in that slightly dappled light kind of situation. any Japanese maple can grow in those situations. But what we’re bringing you today are trees that shine that in that in that space, trees that make a statement in that space and trees that perform well in that space where others might lose their color. So, get excited. Uh I I love Japanese maples. Uh Matt and I have been growing Japanese maples since we were were born. I mean, our our family started growing Japanese maples. 51 years. That’s actually 51 years now. 50 years behind us here if you’re watching it on YouTube. Uh yeah, I’m I’m 43 about to be 44 in November. I had to stop and think about hold on. We’ve been growing maples our whole life with our dad. Like we grew up going to tailgate markets, going to flea markets, uh going out to uh we used to go to a flea market that was a slash movie theater. Had the the outdoor movie theater set up and by day it was a flea market. That’s where we go sell Japanese maples with our dad. Yeah, we may seem fairly young, but we’ve got a lot of experience when it comes to Japanese maples. We’re both former presidents of the Maple Society, the North American branch. Um, great organization. If you love maples, you definitely check them out. Um, but what we do is we’re passionate about Japanese maples and we world travelers when it comes to Japanese maples, seeing them in different gardens, in different settings. And so this list is compiled of a lot of experience we have from our largest selection of cultivars in the United States. So, get excited, guys. Coming in at number 20, we’ve got Acer Pomatum Crimson Prince. Great tree. Kind of underrated. This is This one grows, it’s an upright uh red, but it kind of grows in a little bit more your traditional vase shape. So, it’s not colmer, but it doesn’t put on a ton of wide growth. So, it’s an upright tree with a very unique form. Probably gets overlooked uh with Emperor One and Hector’s Red and a few of those others, but that shape, I think, is really unique about it. Yeah. and crimson prince. It was one of these trees that was patented but then didn’t didn’t get out into the trade because it was patented. Many people didn’t quite understand it and they said, “Oh, it’s another upright blood good.” And as you grow it, you begin to realize its nuances and why makes it so great. One of the things was the shape you were mentioning. That shape is easy to use in landscape because that more conicle shape, more slightly narrow habit is awesome. But the fact that this tree holds its color in a more shaded situation even in high heat means this tree is really outperforming many of the other trees for instance like Emperor 1 and blood good that we have in our green houses. 55% white poly I mean a really shaded area in high heat and crimson prints holds its color well into the summer. Now we did a lot a lot of thinking about this list. Me and Tim really kind of debate back and forth when we create these. This was one of the very best upright reds. So upright red’s a tricky category. A lot of the best upright reds do green up a good bit in shade. So to give you the most honest answer, you know, if you’re growing a blood good in an emperor one in heavy heavy shade, they will green up, especially late in the summer. Uh this one has outperformed the others for holding that color in a shaded condition. Now the fall colors on crimson prints can really give you more of like a scarlet kind of like purple red kind of color in the fall. It’s really beautiful. Uh they’ve got a great specimen of crimson prince that’s featured on our website at the DAW arburetum in Ohio. Uh it’s beautiful. It just shows exactly the shape this tree has with that nice conicle shape. On many of these selections we’re talking about you can go to mraple.com every single one that’s on here and find lots of different photos of these trees in different settings up close to the leaves and our descriptions that give you that 10year size so you can understand how big each of these trees get. Crimson Prints. It’s going to be in that 10 ft in 10 years kind of size frame. It’s a fairly fast grower when it comes to Japanese maples, and that makes it that great red upright for that shadier condition. All right, let’s keep throwing some shade. Coming in here at number 19, we’ve got a Mi Shaguri. Now, this one is one that performs great in early morning sun, late day shade, but I kind of like what it does in a heavy shade condition. So if you’re in a heavier shade condition, you’ve got a darker spot in your garden. Amagi Shagiri is a reticulated smaller tree. So it kind of fits in a little bit of what people like about ghost series, but it’s much smaller. Where a purple ghost could be 10 to 12t, this one’s only going to be about 6 foot in that same time frame. So a much slower stature to this one. Uh really cool colors in the shade though. It actually changes the color a good bit by putting it in a darker location. And it has a more semi-pendulous habit where purple ghost has that more upright habit. the branch is sort of semi- cascade while still going slightly upwards. Uh gives it a very different look, but in that shadier condition, you get more of that metallicy kind of unique shade of green that’s almost like glowing with some cream in there that is just outrageous. It gets a funky color. Now, in sunlight, it’s going to be more of a lavender to purple. You do lose a bit of that in the shade. So, what I like about this one actually changes if you’re growing it in a heavier, shadier spot. Yeah. I mean, it has this crazy look to it that’s unlike anything else in the shade, and it makes a statement. It’s not what you see as a Maguri in the sun at all. Um, but it is so beautiful. It deserves a spot in the shade garden. All right, guys. Coming in here at number 18, we’ve got another classic. This one is another reticulated one. Um, so this one is the Ghost Dancer. Now, this one wasn’t named by Talon Buck Holtz. It was actually named by a neighbor of his around the same time Talon was naming the ghost series. Talon counts it as a ghost series cousin. So, it’s kind of ghost series adjacent. A lot of times he’ll include it uh you know, kind of to the side of the original Ghost Series. There’s none of those original ghost series. Ghost Dancer is the honorary 10th member there. Really cool. Now, this one is uh tends to be more of a light green and cream in the uh the sun. If you’re if you give it early morning sun, it’ll actually be a little bit more yellowish, especially in the early spring. Putting this one in shade really gives it some interesting etching. So that etching above that reticulation that goes throughout every leaf gets a little bit more of like a a light green to almost blue green kind of tint to it. So you get a different kind of leaf exposure. You kind of get a whole different color pattern on this one in heavy shade. And I really dig it. I think it adds a whole lot to this cultivar. And it can really brighten up a really dark spot in your garden. How wide it will get, but also how that that kind of offset color of the reticulation really picks up. Now any of those lighter colored members of the GO series could have deserved a spot on this list. Uh, and this is the only member, honorary member of the Ghost series that we even put on this list. And the reason being is because of that blue that bluish color that it can get. I mean, there’s not many Japanese maples that can get some of that blueing blue green kind of color into it. And Ghost Dancer is definitely one of those that does that in the more shaded situation. In the in the spring, I mean, you can get a little bit of purple tinge around the edge. Um, you get some nice oranges and reds in the fall. Ghost Dancer is a good midsize upright tree reaching about 6 to 8 foot in 10 years. And in that shade garden, this one’s going to shine. It’s going to brighten up those darker spaces. And the fact that you can get that unique color, that blue green color out of this with that creamy blue green, it makes this one really special. Very unique. Great midsize tree in that uh kind of 8 to 9 foot range in 10 years. Not a giant. And if you’re getting it in some shade, I really think it’s a perfect one to kind of brighten up a darker spot in the garden. I mean, it really brings the color and I think the drama on this one actually goes up higher. Like the attention to it in that heavier shade garden. Now guys, coming in at number 17, we’ve got Acer Pomatum Sumagi. This is the red fingernails Japanese maple. It has She got her nails did. She got her nails did. It’s been done. And it’s got this yellow green center to the leaf and a really distinctive red uh purple border to it that makes this tree shine. It’s really beautiful. Where we’re at in western North Carolina, it needs protection from the hot afternoon sun. Um at our buckold farm, it could grow in a little more sunlight and it shines whether it’s in the shade or the sun. Now, if you’re in a shadier spot, it will hold that that fingernail color longer into the summer. So, it does lose it eventually getting more green in the summer. Great orangey reds in the fall on this one as well. A lot cheaper. You can buy a one gallon a lot cheaper than it costs my wife to get her nails done. It’s very expensive. I don’t know if your wife gets her nails done as much as mine. It can get pricey, but uh as sumagi, you can own a onegon for this a lot cheaper than one time for my wife going to get her nails done. Now sumagi in the spring, it unfurls its leaves differently than many other Japanese maples. It looks like a woman is showing you her nails. Yeah. Like puts her hand out. That color in the spring lasts longer than my wife keeps her nails, too. So, you’re saving money. Again, Amy, we should just get you a sumagi. Sumagaki. It It’s really beautiful in that spring garden with that purple border. Uh, you get some yellows to oranges in the fall on sumagi. It is a unique selection that has a spreading out habit. So, it gets, you know, midsize. Would say 6 to 8 foot in 10 years, but it can actually get 8 foot wide. And over time, it actually gets wider, uh, giving a very unique shape to a Japanese maple that many other maple selections don’t have at all. I love the shape. You know, it’s got it’s got that width to it. Has a nice canopy overall, and it really brings a lot to that kind of shade garden. You can kind of let this one be a a bigger to midsize understory for you and really get a lot of drama going on. Especially if you’re in a high shade or oak garden or even a high pine canopy where you want a high drama tree, think about sumagi as a good choice. All right, guys. Next up, we’ve got Acer Palatum Black Lace All Up in Your Face. This one is awesome. I love the color of this one. Whether it’s in the sun or the shade, it’s one of the darkest maples we do. It’s becoming a very popular tree. Like, it’s it’s interesting to see the resurgence of this one. It we’ve had it for a few years and it’s really started to get into a lot of people’s top fives on our channel. A lot of people talking about this one because that color pattern. Yeah. I mean, the black is a tricky color to use in the shade and that’s the reason why it’s down here at 16. uh because often in a shadier spot it’s a darker area. So you’re trying to use things to brighten up those spaces. But you know, we talked about crimson prints earlier. I would say black lace is the only thing that beats it on its red color for a red upright. I mean it has a leaf that reminds us of something like burgundy lace. Um but the color holds better throughout the season, especially and it does that even in the shade, which has really impressed me. Um especially in the shade of our green houses. I mean, when you have high heat and shade, that is the most likely to get chlorophyll into many of these red uprightes. And black lace shines with that dark red color all throughout the season. Now, if you’ve got a maybe a white background or you’ve got something you’re trying to give good color contrast with, you know, black lace is an excellent thing to try to put in there and contrast against these, maybe of your house, your fence or a shed or something like that where you’ve got a lot of natural color going on, this one can kind of bring out and really stand out. Now, the other way to use black lace in the shade is pair it with anything else on this list because we’re about to start getting into some wham wow colors that brighten up those shade. Shamwow colors. I said whamwow. They told they said I’m the guy that yells maple trees. The You’re going to be the shamwow. I’m telling you the wham wow guy. Yeah. We got featured on a podcast, a landscaping podcast, and they called Matt the a question mark suit guy of maples. Of maples. Uh, pretty funny. You’re the whamwow guy. All right, guys. Coming here at number 15, we’ve got our first jaronicum on this list. This is Acer Japonicum Yamakagi. Now, a lot of the big leaf jaronicums are going to look awesome in shade. And the reason why is they get that more tropical look. When you get a jaronicum in the shade, you get massive foliage. So, the foliage even gets larger. If you’re growing yamakagi in the shade, you can get some dinner plate size leaves. I mean, literally, you know, 8 in size leaves on these. Really cool. uh makes a perfect palette for that that fall color because they still go through some amazing fall color, but you can really exaggerate what you like about a lot of the japonicum cultivars by putting them in heavy shade gardens. Yeah. I mean, those leaves just get so much bigger in the shade. Dinner plate size leaves make this thing show off in the shade. And when you have that, it gives a really tropical feel, a unique texture uh that’s very different than much else in your garden. Um, these are so fun for the shade garden simply because those big leaves will just give a unique presence. Japonicums have this unique way of growing sort of arching outward and going still going upward. They often have a very open presence that features those big leaves off better than many other Japanese maples. uh in the shade, you’re going to have a tree that’s not super dense, but those branches make you look out at those leaves and just it just feels like you’re in, you know, prehistoric times. It makes you feel like you’re down there in Jurassic Park. No raptors jumping out of your Yamakagi, hopefully. Uh really cool plant though. I love this one. That big foliage really stands out. And again, there’s several you could put in here. You know, we kind of use Jamakagi as a placeholder for this category. Uh don’t be afraid to try stuff like giant moon. Indian summers have smaller leaves but still look amazing. Number two. Yeah. Still amazing selections in that heavier shade condition and japonicums love that. They they just love it. They thrive in that kind of setting. Uh so there’s a lot of fun japonicums you can put on here. Yamakagi, one of our favorites for that big leaf, but then also that amazing fall color, yellows, red, and oranges. And you something to be said about having this one in shade too because you’re protecting that foliage from the late summer sun. So, your fall color is going to be even more exquisite a lot of times because very uh natural fall color. Now, Yamakagi is going to be a good midsize upright, typically 8 foot in 10 years. A selection by Don Schmidt Nursery uh in Oregon, some of our friends. It was named Mountain Shadows because that was uh the owner of Don Schmidt Nursery’s subdivision and this was found at their neighbor’s house is the Chance Acer Japonicum seedling. Uh I mean that is so cool. Fun story and we’re literally in the Maple Society. We went and toured um Jim Schmidt’s house when he was alive and uh we were going through there and uh Tim’s like, “Did you notice that the the street name here is shadows subdivision?” Yeah. I mean, it’s so so cool. And this is a really unique Acer Japonic with those big leaves. We have a large one uh right at the office. So, right as people walk in the door, our employees love it just seeing that big aconicum leaf, especially when fall hits. All right, guys. Coming in here at number 14, we got another classic tree for you. This is a Shirasawanum full moon maple. Often goes by the golden full moon. Next up, we’re talking about Acer Shiraasawum Arium. The golden full moon maple is one of the trees that’s always asked for by its common name or it’s asked for by I mean people come for it asking it by name. It’s very popular because of that yellow color and that rounded full moon leaf. So popular it’s got nicknames. Yeah, I mean it is. And there’s not a lot of trees that have nicknames on top of their cultivar name. I mean, this is a selection uh that happened in Japan, was brought over by Philip Von Van Seabold, threw off a ship into Holland onto the side of a bank where the original Arm was named Arium. The original ones there at Essel Plantinium. I was touring there with Cor Van Geldron and he said, “If you steal something, I can’t be too upset because we were kind of founded on thievery.” I was like, “You shouldn’t have told me that cuz I’m in a candy store right now, buddy. You don’t want to let us go with saying that.” But yeah, we were walking around and the original Arim’s there on the banks and as the story goes, Seabold sailed up there and kind of threw this thing off and and like a you know small plant like maybe like from what I assume from what he said like a 6ft tree and that the original arm is still there today. it, you know, it’s it’s massive. And if you haven’t watched our Acer Saboldian podcast, go check that out. But we talk about uh Philip Seabold. He actually was a doctor in Japan. And he was helping, you know, work on people’s eyes like an optometrist. And while he was doing that, he was loading his ship full of all the rare maples and plants that Japan wouldn’t let anybody. He’s like, “Keep your eyes over here, buddy. Hey, keep your eyes over here.” Was he actually fixing people’s eyes or was he like messing them up so they couldn’t see what he was doing? Yeah, cuz he was kind He was kind of a maple pirate. He was filling that that trunk up. He had not just maples. I mean, he had the the golden full moon booty in the ship. He was he was taking this stuff back, hiding it away and getting it back to Holland, which is pretty cool. And because of that, we have Arim today. So, pretty cool story with Arim. But that is a yellow and it’s got that yellow color in the garden that brightens up that shade garden so well. 6 foot in 10 years. It doesn’t like the sun. Uh we tried growing in full sun here in western North Carolina and didn’t have much success. When we gave it some shade, it did fantastic. It’s one of those shady characters that just brightens up the garden. We I’ve got this in a high oak canopy and it looks amazing. Like I I tried the same tree and moved it around a few times. Had it in early morning light, kind of eventually tucked it into a heavy oak canopy where there’s a ton of older oak trees and man has that thing thrived and done well and put on a ton of growth. Looks amazing. And even right now, we’re filming this in in July. It is a bright part of that garden. Like you go over to that garden and it really lights up that shady spot. One of our cultivar highlights on our Mr. Maple Show on YouTube. If you’re not subscribed there, you should be. Uh we’ve got cultivar highlights, daily content all about Japanese maples coming out there at the Mr. Maple Show is a cult of our highlight of Acer Shiroium Acer Shirum Arium at St. John’s in the wilderness which is a local church. It’s like a local cemetery and they’ve got that high canopy and you can see arium in that that shady condition how it’s so beautiful and brightens up a garden. So if you’re a shady character, check out that video cuz you can understand how to grow arm in your garden. You’re really getting the most out of a shady character. Hey, why not? He’s like, I’m riding this one till the end. All right, guys. Next up, we’ve got at number 13, we’ve got Acer palmatum butterfly. Really fun tree. Now, you’ll see this one sometimes sold as white butterfly. in my opinion is that the more shade you’re giving it, the more white you’re going to get on the tree. So, if you have this one growing in a high canopy or a shadier spot, it’s naturally going to develop a lot of that white highlight look to it. A lot of us know butterfly older cultivar. JD Veru’s really helped popularize it in the US. Uh really unique colors to this one, you know, green and and kind of a cream color most of the season. When it first leaves out, you’ll get a little bit more of that pink on green, but then it quickly forms to a white on green. Now, like I said, if this one’s in heavy shade, you can just turn that that white up to 11. Like, it just keeps going on up until you kind of get this glowing figure in the landscape. Yeah. Many people believe this to be the same as Kao Nishki. That’s K O C H O N I S H I K I or Ko Nome, which are Japanese for variegated butterfly or dancing butterfly. Many people believe that those are the same cultivar as butterfly themselves. We’ve evaluated them. They’re pretty darn similar. Um, we’re now moving on to the spell and be part of the podcast. I’d like for you to spell and when I talked about how to spell them, that’s how we spell them in Japanese. Romani. Often, you know, these trees have Japanese characters in Japan and then we’re hearing how someone’s pronouncing it in Japanese and then trying to write it in English. So, just I took I took a class in Japanese at Blige Community College over here. It’s one of those continued learning classes and all I learned was that I knew nothing. But, it did help us a little bit with pronunciation. We’ve gotten better with pronunciation, but wow. And a lot of times when you talk to a Japanese durian, it could be in kanji or so, you know, it could actually have a whole different meaning when pronounced in that language from what we see uh here in our raani. So kind of an interesting way of looking at it, but uh great plant, a little bit more columner stature to it than a lot of people think. Doesn’t get very wide, very narrow footprint in the landscape. So that’s something to consider in your shade garden as well is that this one isn’t going to take up a ton of width. Absolutely beautiful though. tends to be six to eight foot in 10 years. Not a giant in the landscape. Uh doesn’t take up a ton of width, but really can provide a lot of white contrast in a shady spot. Yeah, the leaf on butterfly is pretty beautiful and elegant in itself. You’ve got a blue green leaf in the shade, which is really nice on it by but when you’re just seeing that blue green out there in the landscape and then you get a white edge around the leaf and that is what’s the typical leaf on butterfly. I mean, just a little white edge. It looks like someone just took a fine paint brush and just painted around the edge of each and every leaf. Uh that is striking. And then when you get some branches that have almost just white sports coming off of it because it’s in so much shade, that makes this tree just shine. I mean, it makes it have this white presence in the landscape that it can darken up those shady spots in the garden. One thing I’ll recommend with butterfly is avoiding high amounts of nitrogen. Nitrogen can promote more of that green part of the leaf and can even cause reversions that are solid green. If you ever see any branches on butterfly that are solid green, this is one that can throw a true reversion, meaning it will be solid green and never go back to being variegated. So, if you see that happening, prune those out and check and see what may be causing you to have so much green popping off on your tree. One of the things is overfertilizing. And if you can avoid overfertilizing, not putting any fertilizer on it at all, or making sure that you’re putting very low doses amount of nitrogen, uh you’re going to help keep that tree as wide as it can be. All right, coming in here at number 12, we’ve got Hong Long. Now, this is a cool plant. We talk about it a lot. We have a cultivar highlight breakdown on our channel. Go check that out. Guys, this one is a very heat tolerant tree, but it does like the shade, and it actually outperforms in the shade what it can do in the sunlight. Yeah, I remember acceivatum uh everyone was talking about this species uh probably 10 years ago. I mean they started realizing that this is a a species everybody mean me and you right? We’re just nerds. Well, I mean like a lot of the maple geeks like I mean you could just coffee shop people in Walmart were going around like have you seen Lavies? It was mainstream. If you talk to people about cool species that had a future in the ornamental garden, it’s a lavagatum. And that’s because it’s f found at high elevations. That means it can handle colder um temperatures than many of the other evergreen or semi- evergreens. It’s unique because it has an elongated leaf that reminds you of something like a mountain laurel on its leaf. Um it doesn’t look anything like a maple at all on the leaf itself. But this is a tree that holds on its leaves, especially in warmer climates all throughout the year. If I remember one thing about the early 2010s, it was, you know, it was the Harlem Shake, it was planking, and then it was people talking about Acer Lavagatums. That was just I couldn’t believe how popular they got. All right. All right. So, Hung Long was a species that was found as a wild collection by Mark Weatherington. One of the guys I said was talking about Acer Labagatum, and it just had this unique purple color on the new growth. The bark itself got purple on that and the older color gives you that sort of blue peter silver kind of color we mentioned on some of the other trees. So this is one of the first color variations found on a semi evergreen and it’s got a pretty cool future in that shade garden. These kids on their Tik Toks if you wanted attention back in my day you had to sit like a board for an hour social. We didn’t care about your dances. We wanted to see you sit like a board. Love Hong Long though. The colors are crazy on this one. It It is another cultivar like Tim said that was selected as a wild selected plant. We kind of forced Mark’s hand. Uh Mark had this one and he let us get some um he’s at the JC Rston. Let us get some signs off this originally. It was there in that L house at the JC Rston Arboritum. And we started grafting it onto Palmatum because it’s closely related to Japanese maples. And I said, “Mark, we’ve got to introduce this.” He said, “Well, it’s wild collected, Matt.” I said, “Yeah, but it looks like no other lavagatums we’ve ever grown.” Either either put a name on this or we’re calling it Mark Wington. Mark Webbington. Like, we’ve got to get this out there. It’s incredible. For the longest time, this was just code name Webington in our green houses. And I absolutely love it. It’s got purplish bark, which is so next level. Uh, blue green new growth. I mean, really kind of crazy color patterns. Gets this translucent sheen to it. They can green up a little bit in that heavy shade garden, but guys, you’re still getting that crazy bark, that crazy intense spring color. In our area, it is semi-deu. So, in western North Carolina, we’re in zone 6b. They just us upgrade us to seven, but I don’t believe them. liars. We still get zone six winners here. So, I go by the outlier of what we get. We still get negative9 here. We still get the zone six winner. Uh this one tends to drop leaves for us here uh naturally in the winter, but then relief back out with our Japanese maples. And it’s going to do that still in a heavy shade condition here. Now, if you’re in a hotter zone 8, it may hold that foliage all winter. What you’ll see is some foliage drop off conditionally throughout the season and then, you know, new growth flushes come on. Now, the unique thing about Hongong and the reason why it’s on this list about Japanese maples is it’s in section Palmata. That means it’s closely related to a Japanese maple. In fact, if you purchase a Hong Long from Mr. Maple, it’s a high likelihood that the tree you’re getting is grafted to Acer palmatum, a Japanese maple itself, cuz they’re so closely related. This is just as related as, you know, many of the cersinatum japonicums. It’s in that same section, that same family. It’s one of those unique ideas where you have a semi- evergreen in a section with a deciduous tree. And it’s crazy that you can graft an evergreen or semi- evergreen onto a deciduous Japanese maple. I mean, tell me how the physics on that works. I don’t know, but it’s pretty awesome. Hey, y’all can keep the Harlem shape. We’re bringing back everybody mainstreaming Acer Elegant. Now, coming up here next at number 11, we’ve got Tim’s all-time favorite tree. Some of you guys know he’s got his own dance. It ain’t the Harlem Shake. It’s the yellow dance. Tim breaks out a lot when we talk about summer gold. Guys, summer gold is one of the peak trees for sun. So, we talk about this one on our sun list. But this is a great tree to brighten up a shady garden. Acer pomatum summer gold. Now, Matt said it was my all-time favorite tree. If you’ve seen one of our podcasts we did recently, I actually did my top 25 Japanese maples broken up into two podcasts. Summer Gold actually didn’t get number one. So, you should go check that out to figure out what did. We had a listener recently break it down and it says here that by the statistics you’ve mentioned pairing stuff with summer gold 7,281 times since our channel started which is impressive cuz we haven’t even done 2,000 videos yet. So pretty impressive. Now summer gold is that midsize upright selection. It’s 68 foot in 10 years but it gives you that yellow color in the garden and in the sun which it can handle. it gives you that bright yellow, but in that shade garden, it still gives you a yellow green that is very bright and vibrant. Uh we actually do a cultivar breakdown of this in my parents garden where you can see it in the sun and you can see it in the shade. And you see in that shadier spot, you still get that lime green yellow green color that is just vibrant and beautiful. Now, summer gold is an Acer palmatum uh listed as palmatum, but it’s actually an acop palmatum x shiralum. It was found by gear deli nursery in Italy as a chance seedling that was a or as a they claimed a hybrid seedling between Acer Shirroenum and Acer palmatum. Jordan is a sister seedling from it and Jordan’s listed as an Acer Shirroenum. It is also a palmatum x shirum as well. One thing you’ll note on summer gold though is that when you do have seeds on it, they’re often bright red, but they point upwards, which is often a defining characteristic that defines Acer palmatum from Acer Sherylum. Yeah, I love it. Beautiful tree. I actually think those those those samaras when they’re aimed up like that, the seeds is what we’re talking about when we say samaras kind of give it a bokea a bouquet-like look. I love that appearance. They’re often kind of a bright pink red, too, which really gives them a nice contrast to the foliage of summer gold. Now, don’t be afraid to take summer gold into the sunlight. It’ll be on our list for things in high heat. But guys, this one really brightens up a shady spot. So, if you got a shady spot, you’re wanting something that’s going to have a lot of color, not take up a lot of space, summer gold’s a great option. Tim mentioned Jordan, you could throw that in there for a higher option. You know, if you want something similar, but with a larger leaf size and larger tree, Jordan may be an option. But if you’re going for a shadier spot, you don’t want something large there, Summer Gold still a great option. Really shows out. uh you kind of get this crazy kind of like buttery yellow look to it in the heavy shade, which is awesome, especially in the late summer. It’s still going to give you a ton of contrast and give you a really, you know, kind of a glowing presence there in that darker landscape. Yeah. I mean, if you’re wanting to really make this thing show off, throw something like a crimson prince or a black lace we mentioned earlier. Uh that’s a great way to show off both trees is putting something bright yellow next to something that’s so dark red in that shade garden. It really adds presence to both of them and defines each tree better by having something bright to play off of that dark. All right, guys. Coming in here at number 10, we’ve got Acer Pictum Usugumo. One of my favorite trees, guys. This is the batwing maple. Really cool. I love pictims. There’s a lot of different pictims I could put on here. We’ll talk about a few other ones, but the pictums are so much fun. The uh the batwing maple has that big large leaf, and it’s got a swirling style variegation that looks great in a shade garden. This one can handle a little bit of sun, but if you’re getting this one a shade garden, you get kind of more of what you love about it. You get that crazier kind of creamy look to it. I’ve got a one that’s getting pretty large in mom and dad’s garden now. And one of the good things about it is it’s starting to shade out a lot of that lower branching. So, you’re starting to get some of that shade effect on this one. You know, even though there’s not a ton around it, you know, shaded out completely, you’re starting to get that shade effect on the lower branches. Now, Matt mentioned it’s one of his favorite trees. Just giving you a little bit of a heads up. Sometime in the near future to our Mr. Maple podcast. Matt will be doing his top 25 Japanese maples. So, we’ll see what where Usugumo will fall on his list. Might not make the list. I got a lot of favorites. We’ll see. You have to tune in to see. Sometimes I lie, too. I just changed it. Like, I don’t even know. Like, sometimes people be like, “I went in your top five.” I was like, “Yeah, I’m a liar. I just changed it.” So, those big leaves on Usugumo, they just have that nice, really unique batwing shape, which is just spectacular. I love the pictims, what they can do. Usugum with that eerie kind of presence. You can get some almost coral pinks when it first leaves out, but that white it goes to right after is really what Usugumo is known for. We just sort of see like this milky like variegation flowing throughout the leaf. It’s pretty spectacular. And in that shade garden, you’re going to have that white color pretty long throughout the season. Sunlight will actually get a little more chlorophyll into the leaf and make it a little bit greener late into the season. Um, but that shade will actually keep that more milky color longer throughout the season. So, some people take every joke I make on the podcast too literal. So, I’m going to clarify that I’m not a liar and that was a joke. But, but I do love this tree and the trees I love change from time to time. So, every every time I go out there, I fall in love with a different tree. It’s easy to do. Uh, one of the things about this one too is in some shade, you kind of get that that mimicking of the uh japonicum. The foliage gets even a little bit larger in that shade setting, which gives it a very unique characteristic. Uh, beautiful tree. And if you’ve got some room for this one in a heavy shade garden, especially a high canopy, it can easily get in that 15 foot range and and really give you a wild presence of just glowing variegation, big leaves, very unique contrast, and that swirling variegation in it is uh it’s it’s one of my favorites for today. Now, in the shade garden, uh you know, with sunlight, you can actually get some some kind of peach colors to it in the fall, but in the shade garden, you definitely get more yellows in the fall with uso, which gives you a different color in the fall to play off of many of your other Japanese maples. Uh guys, coming in number 10, that is Acer Pictum Usugumo. Not to be confused with number nine, Acer Pomatum, Ukigumo. Man, they just really you just really messed some people up on that one. Usugum Ukigumo. Usugum Ukigum. Okay, Ukieumo, guys, is uh super popular. It’s a floating cloud Japanese maple. You see this one a lot. Uh not as consistently white as a lot of people would like. So, if you’re if you’re buying this one, know that sometimes you will have seasons, even in heavy shade, where it is more green. The key for this one, leaving it out slow. Don’t use a lot of high nitrogens on it. But keep it in a shade garden. You can really create some amazing color on this one. I have this one located, I talked about that arm in a high shade canopy. I have my Ukumo in a high shade canopy as well. and it gets some amazing colors and it’s very consistent. So, I have it under some oak trees and it leaves out very slow because of that. So, there’s a lot of shade on that one. The oak trees leaf out late, but all those trees in that that forest kind of keep it a little bit more protected, a little bit cooler. It’s sided up next to a house and so there’s a lot of moss in there. It’s kind of a cooler part of the garden. And as a result, this one leaves out very slowly and is very consistent on its spring color, which is that bright white coloration. So, really fun. When this one kind of hits its full spectrum, you’re not going to get anything that really in palmatum that that strives to be this white in the landscape. I absolutely love it. Now, acer palmatum ukumo is really just an amazing tree that can give you some white color, but even the years it doesn’t, you can get some amazing fall colors. You get some really nice shades of yellows and oranges with ukumo, making it one of the best fall color Japanese maples. I love what ukumo can do in the landscape, especially in that shade garden where you can just brighten it up with that white color that you know it gets that name for floating clouds because it looks like clouds out there when it gets so white. Some people would even call it a shady character. All right, going on in here at number eight, guys, we’ve got a lace leaf that is known for the shade. It’s been around for a while. It’s a classic. We’re coming in with Acer Palmatum Dissectum Crimson Queen. Now, Crimson Queen is one of the best red weaving laces for the shade. uh things like red dragon, tumukiyama, anabashtari, those are fantastic trees for high heat. This is the opposite. The red color is actually held better in a more shaded situation where some of those others I just mentioned, if you put them in a more shaded situation, they’re going to turn more green. Crimson Queen gives you a cherry red color in that shaded situation. So, it’s going to be very beautiful and give you what most people think of for a weeping red lace leaf in that shade garden. Very dense, very full. Uh, this one’s typically be around 4t tall, about 5 to 6 foot wide. That low little cascading umbrella. Very dense. Now, it’s very very common for crimson queen to get so full that you don’t see into the structure. So, have to open that one up if you want to see into the branching a lot. Typically forms a very dense canopy. Looks great in a container or in the ground. Perfect tree for that shade garden. And I love its fall color. It’s one of my favorite fall color lace leaves. Typically a very picked up pink red on this one in the fall, giving it that crimson bright scarlet appearance. I mean, I’ve had bold pink red is probably the best way I could describe it is like there’s a tone of pink in there that really elevates the red to another level. Yeah, Crimson Queen. It’s an amazing selection by some of our good friends in the New Jersey area. Um, the Vcades have introduced so many amazing trees into the nursery trade, mostly conifers. Crimson Queen is probably one of the most popular trees that they’ve ever introduced. It’s a common name people ask for by name because they know of that fall color Matt was just mentioning. It has a unique shape where it stays shorter and has a wider spreading habit. Uh it there is and that is the true crimson queen that’s in the trade. There are often box stores. I mean this became a a tree that was found in box stores, but they’re often mislabeled. It’s often a common name people threw on a red lace leaf. One of the problems with the box stores and uh you know I’ve been telling people this my whole career in maples. One of the problems is that sometimes people will print one blanket label and they’ll put them on all the product. So you’ll see a knobisharis, you’ll see other more common lace leaves all get labeled one thing because they print one hanging tag label. Yeah. They’re required to buy a hanging tag. So they just instead of wasting them, you know, putting the money towards, you know, changing it out, they just put Crimson Queen on all give Crimson Queen a bad name because it’s gotten often times the catch all has been Crimson Queen cuz that sells. Uh but sometimes when you’re getting one at a big box store, it might not actually be a crimson queen. But crimson queen itself is a beautiful weeping lace leaf that has that wider habit than tall. Typically stay shorter and it has a more cherier red color, especially if given the shade. Uh the fall colors spectacular. If you’ve got somewhere where you don’t want something to block your view and you want it to just spread out and give some of that more picked up red color in a shade situation, crimson queen is the weeping red lace leaf you’re going to want to use. All right, guys. Coming here next, we’ve actually got a coral bark on the list. We’re going to be doing Acer palatum benny kawa. Now, many of you may be shocked to see a coral bark on a shade tree list uh for shadier locations. Guys, this one holds its bark color very well even in darker shadier spots. And that’s the thing that makes this the shade coral bark Japanese maple. If you look at sangukaku, which is the one that everyone comes, calls, and asks for this what people known as the coral bark in many instances. It needs that sunlight to give that bark color. So in a shade garden, it’s going to be a green tree with yellow fall color. The bark isn’t going to be something to write home about because the bark doesn’t intensify to that red color that everybody loves. Ben Kawa gives you that coral red bark color in that winter giving you the dynamics that everyone wants with a coral bark for the shade garden. Uh the winter interest is spectacular on Vinikawa, but just like Sangukaku, it also has amazing yellow fall color. And yellow fall color is underrated because it pairs so well in a Japanese maple garden with all the other maples that are typically more on that orange to red side. lovely tree and again it’s going to outperform Sangukaku and many of the other coral barks in a more shady spot. That bark actually stays pretty nice even in a shadier spot. A lot of the other coral barks need that sunlight to kind of pick up those colors. Uh this one surprisingly does great in a darker canopy. So check that one out if you’re looking for a coral bark. Now we’re not saying this one can’t go in the sun. So you can still put Benny Kawa in a sunny spot, but it’s one of our top performers for a shade location. Yeah. And the name Benny means red. Kawa means bark. And for a coral bark selection, this one is a little slower growing than Sangukaku. It’s that midsized tree in the landscape. And so it’s going to fit in much of, you know, your shade canopies. If you’ve got a canopy above you, it’s going to fit in that very well because we’re talking 8 to 10 foot in 10 years as opposed to 12 feet that the Sangukaku would possibly get in the same time frame. All right, guys. Coming in here at number six, we’ve got Acer Palatum, Snow Kitten, Yukiyama, Snow Kitten, Elmer. Well, we’re sticking with the right name and the right name on this one is Snow Kitten. This one is that variegated Macawa form. I love this one in a shady spot. It is a fun Macawa form with a lot of white variegation to it. If you’re giving this one the appropriate amount of shade, you can really get some incredible variegation going on. Uh this one uh can almost be white. I mean, it can really mimic some of that white new growth, especially the late summer new growth in a shady location can be incredible. You know, a lot of people have talked about Brian’s in our group because people see that one Brian’s posting. It’s a high graft. Talon likes that for the air flow, but also it’s a high graph that’s in a lot of shade. So that’s how you get all that spotting speckling going on. And he actually has that one in a container on his porch. So it’s got great air flow and great shade. If you want to see how white some of these can get, check out some of our Buck Holtz walkthroughs. Especially whenever we took our parents to Buck Holtz Nursery, you can see the white new growth on this that, you know, can be almost a foot at our Buck Holtz farm. Um, it’s insane how this little dwarf Japanese maple can produce so much variegation. Now, I will say that the variegation on this is in that aridon nishki style. So, it has the splotch variegation and that style produces variegation when they’re slightly stressed. Uh, so one of the easiest ways to cause that slight stress that’s a healthy way is to prune it in the late winter time frame. And people often don’t want to prune a dwarf, but if you prune this arena on Nishki style, the snow kitten, um, then you actually get new growth that comes on. Maybe not the first flush, but the second flush will really start to show some amazing amazing variegation. So, just because it’s a dwarf Japanese maple, don’t be afraid to prune it because that’s what’s going to make this tree show off so much. And the more you prune on it, the more variegation you get. And if you get that much variegation, you’re going to need to give it some shade because I mean it gets more variegation in the leaf than the green part which is the chlorophyll. It’s one of the few maples I’ve ever see have white bark. Like you get so much swirling on new growth on this when it gets a white bark characteristic to it. Sometimes you’ll even get a little pink in there. Uh giving it some shade though is ideal for this one. The tree needs good drainage and shade. You don’t want in a high sun condition. That can really green it up a lot. And you want to leaf this one out slowly much like the ukumo. So you don’t want to over push this one with fertilizers. Again, pruning is the best way to get growth. We typically do our pruning here in late February, right before they leaf out. Um, so kind of that time frame is the ideal time to make some small cuts and you’ll actually get a faster growing tree by doing that. So, absolutely showstopper and one of my all-time favorites for the shade garden. Um, if you got a high canopy and you want this one to show out, get it in the ground. I mean, it’s a plant that’s going to just really surprise you. A lot of people are afraid to put this one in the ground. If you have the right setting, especially with some shade, don’t be afraid to. I’ve had one of these in a shady spot in my garden for about 8 years now and it’s handled our zone 6 winters. Uh good drainage is paramount. Now, don’t put this one out in a spot that’s going to stay too wet. Side it up next to a house or in a a darker location where it’s not getting too much, you know, it’s getting a little bit of sheltered protection there. Um but yeah, don’t be afraid to plant this on the ground. A lot of people consider this one a container plant only. And for me, I think everything’s easier in the ground than it is in a container if you find the right spot for it. And that is so true, especially if you give good drainage. raise that up whenever you’re planting it just to make sure that water flows away. Being that it’s a dwarf, it needs less water than something that grows faster. And the fact that it’s variegated means it even needs even less water. So, a common, you know, problem is overwatering with some of these variegated dwarfs, especially something like snow kitten. Guys, coming in at number five on our top shady characters, Japanese maples that will do well for you in the shade, uh, we’ve got Acer Pictum, Nuri Nishki. You’re kind of a shady character. I notice you hang out in the shade a lot. I do. I need protection from the hot afternoon sun. Tim is a high oak canopy kind of guy. All right, guys. Nurin Nishki is an awesome plant. I love this one. It’s a pictum from Japan with a lot of white to it. I find this to be even more consistent than ukumo for the white. So, if you’re looking for that white bold spark in the garden, nurineski can certainly do it. Now, if you have this in a high canopy, it’s going to be even more pale and it’s going to hold that very well. Now, I have these in a good bit of sun with great success, but man does nuri nishki brighten up a dark spot in the garden. So, what a lot of people are looking to do in that darker shade canopy is bring some color in there. And and if it’s a very dark area, a lot of times those wider plants are going to add the most contrast the quickest. So, the typically in our our high shade canopies, we’ve got a lot of dark evergreen colors just by nature because that’s a lot a lot of the floor is going to go to in a darker setting. Nurinishki can add that spark. It can really lighten up a spot. It gets to be a mid, you know, mid-size tree. I mean, it’s not uncommon for these to be 10 to 12 feet tall in 10 years. So, it gets to be a nice size tree. It can really just plug in that area, give it a whole new look to it, and brighten up a dark green spot. Yeah. And four white Japanese maples is possibly the whitest of them all. And it’s got that bigger leaf that really shows that white color. It’s going to brighten up those dark spaces so easy because that leaf is so large. And you also have that white color. I mean, it is phenomenal. It’s going to make that good midsize tree out there in the garden. And it’s kind of like everything we loved about Usugumo, but it’s like you just turned up the contrast. And that’s the reason why it’s so high on our list is because it’s everything we love about one of our favorites, but it’s even more. It’s like on It’s to the next level. It’s pretty awesome. You want to say on crack on steroids? I was going to say on cloud9 for whiteness, but you know, you can use your own your own your own descriptions. It’s on the It’s just the liver king of maples is what you’re saying. It’s on the highest amount of steroids possible. I hear you got in some trouble the other day. He was like chasing somebody, some podcasters, so we better be careful, guys. Coming up, don’t get me liver king. Guys, coming up on number four on our top shade Japanese maples, we’ve got Acer Pomatum Heime Sojo. What if he’s a huge maple fan? What if he listens to everything we do? What if he’s like sitting at home right now? He’s like, “People to kill D.” He He marks out Joe Rogan. He Tim Nicholls. Yeah, I was the one who said it. That was you. I believe you were the one. No. No. All right. It was definitely Tim. Heime Sojo. Awesome plant for the shady spot, guys. This one is one of my favorite reds for holding its color. Now, heime sojo is a lot like Kio, but as a red. So, it’s a more compact small leaf red. Wants to grow in more of that that Kio style form. So, more of that toad stool type shape that’s popular for Mirosaki, Kioime, Capers, dwarf, that whole category. Interestingly enough, you can change the shape of this one a good bit if you stake it up. It tends to grow more like a small fire glow with small leaves. So, you can you can manipulate the shape on this one. I prefer them grown more in that Kio style. But what’s really popular about this one for the shade is that red stays even in dark conditions. One of the smallest leaves, perfect for bonsai. So if you’re looking for a red, you know, Kioime style, Sejo style for a bonsai, think about heime sojo. But also that ability to hold its color in a darker spot is awesome. If you were put in a bonesai, you you naturally have to protect bonesai a lot. They they can’t just be out in the full sun exposure in the late part of the summer. So this one’s one that’s going to look great even on a darker setting. I mean, Heime Sojo is the original name it got in Japan. But if you termed it something like shade king or shade red, now you’re sucking up the liver king. Now you’re going back. I’ll fight Tiger King. You fight Liver King, we’ll be all right. Hey, I ain’t getting any fights. But Heime Sojo is just an amazing red dwarf and it’s the best red dwarf red, you know, little compact form I’ve ever seen for the shade. I mean, the fact that it holds so well late into the season, the fact that it’s vigorous at a young age and then gets that compact form means it’s easier for people to use. It’s easy to get established in the landscape. And the fact that it holds its red color so well late in the season in the shade means it fits everything people want out of Shaina and some of these other red dwarfs, but it can do that in the shade. I mean, that is next level for that red dwarf Japanese maple in your garden. That podcast you mentioned earlier did call me the maple king, so maybe I need a big online meltdown. You got Tiger King, Liver King, Maple King. All right, coming in here at number three, guys, we got a weeper that is amazing. We’ve got yellow cascade. Uh this is one of the best, you know, yellows for a shadier spot. This one is a Talon Buck Holtz introduction. Has that butter yellow and it holds that really well even in a darker spot. Now, this one’s going to have a very similar shape to rayus Ryusen. Gets about as big as you stake it. So, you can play with the shape a good bit. You can put this one out in the shady garden, let it be more of a ground cover. You can stake it up and kind of manipulate the shape into more, you know, garden art style. So, you can play with that a good bit. I tend to stake them to about 5 to 6 feet, then kind of let them cascade down from there. But I’ve seen them grown over as trelluses. You can do anything you could do with rayusen with yellow cascade as well. So with the yellow cascading types of weeping uh Japanese maples, there’s dragon master, golden falls, and yellow cascade. Golden Falls, I would say, is probably for me one of the most sun tolerant. Uh Dragon Master and Yellow Cascade both give you some good yellows in the shade. So either one could sort of fit in this number three spot. I think with the yellow cascade, you might even get a more pale, buttery yellow right now on this time of the year. I I think so. And that’s why it fell on my list right now is because walking through the green houses, you get that pale buttery yellow that’s just like sometimes even yellow bleach. Mhm. Even in a more shaded situation. And so it for a yellow for the shade, yellow cascade gives you some really nice strong weeping habit. So easy to shape cuz like you were mentioning, it’s got that reus style to it, but that yellow color is just next level with yellow cascade. Now, I’d like to see this done in a shade garden as a low canopy like we saw at Michael Steinharts where you don’t stake them at all. Like they were doing that with Ryusen. And I’d love to see this done in a high oak canopy where somebody just lets a yellow cascade kind of carpet the whole area. That’d be a really fun way to see this one as well. And it’s a great way to add contrast to some of the other trees. You’re talking about a yellow carpet. That’d be that’d be I don’t that that doesn’t get a yellow dance out of I don’t know what will. A yellow carpet in a garden out of a deciduous Japanese maple. That would be just next level, guys. Yellow cascade. It’s a selection that was a sister seedling to Golden Falls. We’ve got a comparison video between those two trees a couple times on our channel. One is with the original Golden Falls and one is with the original Yellow Cascade so you can see them side by side. But we’ve actually got some spring differences where you can go check out the differences between those two cultivars in our Macawa uh walkth through where we walk through the Macawa house. you go get go to the end of the video there and you’ll see the differences between yellow cascade and golden falls in the early spring time frame. But right now guys, yellow cascade for me still in the show. All right guys, coming here at number two, we’ve got Acer palatum. This is a talon buckle introduction that’s probably one of the more white of that arniski styles. Uh if you’re giving this one some shade, I think it hits some of the peak white colors for a Japanese maple in that swirling style variegation. So, you can get some incredible colors out of this. Really brighten up a dark spot in the garden and it just stands out to me as one of the ultimate shade plants. It is a super shady plant. I mean, I love Arian. It’s one of those trees that just gives you some super white colors. Talon Buck Hold sent us a box, a FedEx box, maybe a UPS box, and we opened it up and it was our very first Allarian. And when I opened that thing up, it was just all variegation. And Talon said, “Guys, give this some protection from the hot of new sun because it it’s got so much variegation, if you give it more sunlight, it’ll burn. And if you give it more sunlight, you can get more green and more chlorophyll into the leaf. But the more I actually have some people here in western North Carolina with it in full sun looking great.” Yeah. Which was surprising to me. But if you put this one in shade, it kind of turns it up even a little bit higher. Exactly. And when you turn it up to that next level and you give it some pruning, like we mentioned with that snow kitten earlier, it’s in that Arita Onishki style vein. you can get so much that the new growth is completely variegated and in a shade situation it can actually survive and do well where if you put that same tree in the sunlight with that much variegation it wouldn’t be doing as well. So such an amazing tree that possibly one of the most variegated Japanese maples I’ve ever seen. Oh, it’s like it’s it’s all the way up. I mean it’s it’s crazy. They definitely turned this one up to 11 as well. It’s it’s on that that kind of just glowing level, especially in a shade garden. You get a nice size one of these, you kind of get that all white. It’s a little subtle pink in the spring. You get some splashes of pink, but that green and white are really what takes this one to the next level. Uh beautiful uh shades of pink and red in the fall on this one as well. Uh it’s one of my favorites, though, for a shade garden. So, if you’re if you’re in shade, people are like, “I’ve got this area that’s all shade. What should I grow?” And I’m like, “You have the perfect setting for this.” Like, if you have a shady garden, that’s the ideal setting for this. You’re going to get you’re going to get this one turned up to the most high level. you get the best performance out of a lari in a in a high canopy or high shade canopy. Now at Buck Holtz Nursery, one of the things that Talon Buck Holtz would do is he would go through thousands and thousands and thousands of seedlings and there were evaluation seedlings that he was continuing to look through, but sometimes he would tell his employees to go through and see what piqu their interest, what was interesting to them. And Allarian was a worker that was very he he was very impressed by he had a good work ethic. And this is the tree that Allarian found and brought to him as what impressed him. And Talon said, “You know, I think you’re right. I think this is a really cool tree and actually named it for his worker that worked for him. Uh we’re actually bringing this huge evaluation process back to Buck Holtz Nursery. Uh we’re going to be doing even more evaluations through uh seedlings at Buck Holtz Nursery. And so it’ll be fun to see, you know, what different people uh think’s interesting to them and continue to evaluate. I know I will be going out there and looking through all these seedlings. I’ll name the tree after you. Even if you find it, I’m just trying to get the tree named after you. There’s going to be Tim. There’s already a tiny Tim out there. So, you’re tiny Tim then. I’m not tiny, but there’s already a Tim out there. So, I don’t think there needs to be another Tim in there to confuse things in the trade. And there’s a Matthew as well. There’s a Matthew. Not a tiny Matthew, just a Matthew. But it is a tiny tree. All right, coming here at number one, y’all make sure to like and subscribe. Go to your favorite podcast platform. Give us five stars if you made it this far in the podcast. If you like uh this kind of content, support us on mraple.com. We turn out free content on Japanese maples, seven days a week on the Mr. Maple Show and a weekly podcast all devoted to our favorite plants. It’s our passion, Japanese maples. We’re all the way up to numero uno. Tim, what do you got? We got red filigree. This is possibly one of the most finely cut red lace leaves. And guys, she fine. It is the best red for the shade. This one’s so impressive. Uh, you know, it’s hard to take pictures of this one. I’ve said that many times on our podcast and Mr. Maple Show. It’s a tricky one to capture how thinly dissected this foliage is. It’s a slow grower. Typically a 3×3 even in 10 years. So, it’s one of the smallest maples. Uh, it fits great in a container, but maybe even more impressive than all that is the fact that this one holds its color in deep shade. So, you can put this one on a porch. It’s a great container plant for that reason. It can be under a patio. You got to be careful with trees that don’t receive any natural water. You got make sure to water those plants still. And if you have your maple somewhere it doesn’t receive a lot of natural water, you’re in charge of the water now. So remember that. But red filigree, it really captures everything you love about a deep red lace leaf that you want to be small in a darker shade setting. That that color still is there and it holds it so much better than a lot of other red lace leaves. I mean, it had to be number one on this list for that reason. It’s one of the best container plants, too. I mean, it is slow growing. It’s one of the smallest weeping red lace leaves uh in the nursery trade. It’s slow growing. It fits in so many spaces. I will say to make this tree stand out in the shade, plant something underneath it. Give it some Angelina sedum or some creeping jenny. Give it something like our parents have a ground cover that they call snow on the mountain that’s like a white uh ground cover underneath ours. And if you do that, it’ll contrast well with the foliage that is so thin that but it’s a really nice shade of red. Yeah. Don’t give this one too much competition. So, uh plant your hostas, give it some space. This is a small tree that’s slow growing. Uh, Angelina is perfect. Like you were saying, like a light color. Uh, especially when it’s young. As it gets bigger, you can kind of increase the size, but don’t go with too big of a plant underneath this one. Absolutely a showstopper, though. You You’ll be so impressed with how dark red this is, even in a heavy dark setting. People who are looking for a red weeping lace leaf for a small space in the shade, red filigree lace looks fantastic all throughout the season. All throughout the season. And I think, you know, for nurser it difficult to produce. It’s not that popular amongst nurserymen because it’s slow growing. So, it’s not an instant turnaround. It has twiggier growth when we’re grafting it. So, it’s hard to graft. It’s difficult to produce whenever it comes to grafting. It’s one that’s notorious for that. Um, I think whenever they first released the selection, it went through a lot of different hands. People could actually produce it. And then eventually there was this whole saga of, you know, people getting it who shouldn’t and maybe got renamed, maybe got renamed, maybe didn’t. Uh there’s a whole red filigree lace uh saga. Go check out our JD Verites Archives podcast we did. We went to the JD Verites Archives at Oregon State with Town Buck Holtz and kind of dug through. We had Town there helping interpret some of the stuff and tell stories and go check out that podcast if you want a little bit more about that story. Yeah, super interesting. I love when there’s drama behind a tree. It just adds to the interest of the story. And there’s a lot of drama behind red filigree lace, but it gives you that good red color in that shadier spot. So, it’s hard to beat it. Coming into our shady characters, our top 20 uh Japanese maples for your shade garden. Guys, Tim’s resisted doing a Harlem Shake since I mentioned it. So, make sure to hit that like button just for that. He’s held off the entire time. Uh guys, we appreciate you tuning in today. If you like this kind of content, again, make sure to like and subscribe. Go give us uh five stars somewhere. We’d really appreciate it. Helps people see our podcast. Share it with your gardening friends. That’s who we really want to see this. You know, we’re a small channel. We’re not a huge channel, but we have a very dedicated group of followers. They make it very fun. So, go check out those live chats. We air these videos on Sunday evenings at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. That’s the video component on YouTube. Go hop in that chat. There’s a lot of fun people in there having discussions, talking about plants, talking about their garden, talking about their maples, and I think we’ve created a really fun community there. And if you’ve got a shade garden and you’ve got other recommendations for trees that thrive and do well in your shade garden and really show off and you’re on our YouTube channel, post those in the comment section. I think a lot of other people who are coming through and have shade gardens will find this particular video and they’re pretty interested in what trees would do well for them. The only trees that’ll go okay in shade? Not even close. So y’all, we appreciate y’all jumping in today. Uh, thank you all so much for joining us. Take care. God bless and have a great day. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]