About 6 years ago (geez, has it been that long?) when we'd just topsoiled the yard, the neighbor's mature Japanese maple volunteered a bunch of seedlings, a little over half a dozen of which I faithfully collected and nurtured in little pots. One in particular had unusually bright red foliage even on its first autumn, and in subsequent years it has only gotten more spectacular, going a very pure lacquer-red in fall, with these lovely red/purple/green shadings now. (Most of them, seed parent included, are pure green and turn yellowish with some red in the fall, which is the commonest phenotype for wild trees. Breeders often seek the red ones).

My prize tree is beautiful, and I am now trying to clone it. You can see why:



( Detailed descriptions of plant geekery beneath the cut )