Maples!

This is less a news post, and more a call for information.

So typically, the most common maples we see as bonsai are Japanese maples and Trident maples. But there is a wealth (over 160 species in the genus) of different maples that could be used. While some might be unsuited for smaller sized bonsai, due to a lack of leave reduction and long internode size, almost any maple has the qualities needed to thrive in bonsai cultivation (tolerance to root pruning, quick healing, etc). But traditionally we focus on two species of maple, to the near complete exclusion of so many other interesting and potentially beautiful choices.

I've been working a bit with my own local maple species as bonsai. And while none of these have been in cultivation long enough for them to warrent anything other than the name 'prebonsai material,' I am looking foreward to the next few years working with them.

So what's my call for information?

I'm looking for people who have worked with non traditional maple as bonsai stock. I'd like to hear your opinions on them, your experiences with lead reduction, root pruning, or any other observations you have with a particular species. I'd be interested to know what prompted you to give it a try in the first place. Was it simply cheap local material to practice on? A beautiful yamadori you couldn't resist? Recommendation? I'd also like to see pictures of any you've been working on, in any stages of development.

Now, the why.

I'm working on compiling a list of the nontraditional maples that could be used in bonsai cultivation. I would like to include more information than what is available to me in books and the internet. I can include my own experiences with my own local species, but so many of them I do not have personal access to. It means that while I might be able to make cultivation notes from research, I wouldn't actually know that (insert x species here) has long internodes, making it difficult for small bonsai cultivation, but it can tolerate radical root pruning, or that (insert y species here) has leaves that while they seem unreasonably large in the wild, reduce drastically for good use in even shohin bonsai.

That kind of personal experience is what I'm searching for. Eventually, I would like to put up the list on my website, Kitsune Bonsai, if I can get all of the information I need. Contributors, whether of useable information or photographs, will be included. I recognize that I simply cannot experience every species of maple on my own, not even in the next ten years.

Drop me a line here, or at the website if you have worked with any nontraditional maples you would like to share with others who might be hesitant to try experimenting with their own local maple species. Even if it's "I had trouble with this one," that's a help!

I feel like local native trees are all too often over looked in bonsai, in favor of published, more well known "traditional" trees. I enjoy working with traditional subjects, but it is also a huge boon, and even an adventure, to discover and experiment with local species to find what works and what might not. The eventual plan is to detail all of those local species, but of course I have to go and start with the most difficult!