Gorgeous 40 Year Old Japanese Maple

 This Japanese Maple is forty plus years old. My sister-in-law was here one year and tore out my old shrubs. I wasn't happy about it at the time and my wife knew it. But after tearing out the shrubs she planted a tiny Japanese Maple.

It didn't do a lot for some time, as this variety was slow growing, but eventually it became a centerpiece in our front yard. We both swore every year in the spring that it was dead but it would always come back. The last day I saw my wife alive I was pushing her in her wheelchair to the car to take her to the airport so she could visit her family in California. She told me it was definitely dead.

Unfortunately, she never saw it bloom that year. And it has kept on blooming and growing year after year. 

My neighbor has a yard that could definitely go on Better Homes and Gardens. She is shocked by the way it grows. She asked what I did to to it. Nothing. Seriously. I have never pruned it or fertilized it or anything. I pull the weeds around it and mulch every few years.

That's it.

My grandson and I just bought 2 different varieties for out back. One is by our largest pond and one I currently have growing in a pot by the deck pond. I have a picture in another post.

I do not know the variety of this plant. It kind of resembles the one below.

Deck Pond

 

Here's an update on my pond I installed into the deck. I've added a Japanese Maple behind it in a pot. The plans are to cut into the floor and drop the pot down so only the top two or three inches show so it will be easier to see the display around the tree.

The fish love this pond. We keep the new ones here the first year. They are all koi. I bring them in during the winter and take them out to our smaller front pond in the spring. They don't reach the large pond until they reach a size where our largemouth bass can't eat them.

I show you the basics of doing this in a previous post in case you want to do the same. It's worth the work. The pond sits on a platform I built under the deck so the deck doesn't support the weight. It just drops in and I bring it in for the winter and cover the hole so we don't fall in.