Newly acquired Japanese maple

[Beau]

Hi all,
First time, long time.
Yesterday I was lucky enough to get to call dibs and dig out a Japanese maple from my partners grandmothers very overgrown garden (a little early in the year i know however it was a one off opportunity as the house has just been sold, so fingers crossed)
I was told it was planted as a tiny seedling 15-20 years ago, it had been starved for light and has leggy branches that were searching for the small pockets of light amongst the garden, nothing a few air layers won't fix.
The leaves are a very light almost lime green colour and what I would like to know is, would anybody know if its just a stock standard Acer palmatam or possibly something cooler? I know there's many varieties but no idea what they are.
Cheers Beau

[juan73870]

Hi Beau

Couldn't tell you what variety it is, but boy you got yourself a nice score there!


Hope it transplants without a hitch for you, I'm sure it will - looks like a nice healthy rootball.

Nice one!

[shibui]

Impossible to even guess at a variety until we can see one or more defining characteristics. That may mean watching for a year and checking spring leaf color, summer color and leaf shape and autumn color.

The low bend and bulge does look suspiciously like a graft union though there are other things that could cause similar shape in an ungrafted JM.

Personally I don't understand the obsession with named varieties. All Japanese maples are Japanese maples no matter if someone has given them a name or not. They nearly all require the same care and culture so what's the need to seek out a name?

Good news is that JM usually quite happy to transplant and trunk chop so I see no problem for this one. Slightly early move should not be a problem. Most commercial tree growers will be digging their stock now to go to retailers for winter bare root trees and they have close to 100% survival.

BTW, a location added to your profile will help others understand your climate and will allow us to give better tailored advice and responses.

[Beau]

Sorry guys I didn't actually realise this posted until just then i thought my phone glitched and deleted what I had written
Cheers I'm pretty chuffed with it.
To be honest it's really just curiosity more than anything as I have quite a few JMs and none are this colour in the growing season or now and I quite like it.
I agree that it looks suspiciously like a graft however time seems to have blended it nicely if it is, i may experiment with an air layer first to see if it can support itself on its own roots before i try anything drastic.
Oops I've just tried to update it I'm down on the Mornington peninsula in Victoria
I had other photos but having trouble shrinking them

[shibui]

A graft does not preclude a tree as bonsai. Only bad grafts are a problem. Many are so good that most people would not notice the tree is grafted so they get the impression that all grafts are bad.
The bark color is the same above and below and neither has started to swell so I can't see it up close but think it should be OK to keep this one intact, at least while you start to develop it a bit.