Japanese maples were subjects of much poetry and art in seventh-century Japan. However, both world wars took their toll on the many different collections of these trees, which were often used as firewood. By the late 1940s, many cultivars had become extinct. However, in the 1960s there was a return of interest and since then more than 320 varieties of Japanese maple have been developed from the remaining native trees. The Japanese maple adapts to different soil types, but prefers slightly acidic soil. They thrive in sandy loam type soil with low organic matter content. They generally have a shallow, fibrous root system to begin with, so uniform watering and mulching is necessary for a few years to establish the tree. To avoid competition for water and nutrients, keep the area under the tree well weeded. Acer palmatum has many different varieties that have different colors, leaf shapes and growth habits. The tree is open pollinating, meaning that seeds from a specific cultivar will not be an exact clone of the parent tree. For this reason, the propagation f...