My 7 year old Japanese Maple is truly one of my favorite plants in my gardens. It was so small, and I have nurtured it carefully. What a beauty! It is now almost 20 feet tall. This fall however, an early cold snap left it with its leaves intact. An unusual occurrence, which was discussed here on a forum I started earlier. I was worried when we had two snows resulting in about 1 foot of wet heavy snow. The limbs were weighed down . I did gently coax some of the snow off. Happy to see it today, limbs shook off the snow and it is once again standing tall.
Cayuga- Yes, first time ever this tree did not drop its leaves in the fall. Sjoerd gave me some good information about the suspected reason; having to do with a severe cold snap we had in November. It has been strange to look out there and see the sad, dry, faded leaves this year. I am hoping when spring arrives, when the tree comes out of dormancy, the new buds will push these old leaves off. I have several other shrubs with this same condition this winter.
Wow Kay, that is a first for me. I have never encountered this! I know some trees ordinarily keep their old dead leaves almost through the winter (oaks), but have never seen a Japanese maple do this. Let me know what happens when spring comes. I bet you are right, that the new growth will push the old leaves off. You are smart too, to brush the heavy snow off those branches.
Along with CM I am amazed that an Acer(maple) species would retain its leaves into the winter. Obviously a condition that deserves monitoring. All our maples including my one and only Japanese maple readily drop their leaves in the fall on cue. The process is called abscission. A word found in our new glossary(shameless plug for a new feature). As long as you monitor the strain created by snowfall the tree will drop the old leaves in the stping as new leaves emerge. Jerry
