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Metro Maples - Shantung Maple Research
Program
Cultivar names within quotes are 'registered
cultivars'.
Here are some pictures from my selection program in a
effort to
introduce many more Shantung Maple cultivars:
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'Fire Dragon'®
(PP #17367) is the first Acer truncatum cultivar, introduced and
patented in the fall of 2005 by Keith Johansson, owner Metro Maples. A beautiful and refined leaf shape
combined with reliable red fall colors. It was discovered in 1999
and sales have always exceeded the supply. There is not another
tree for the Texas sun that can turn red every fall and guess what,
colors are also outstanding when this tree is grown farther north. 'Fire Dragon'®
is very hardy, zone 4, and heat tolerant. It survived with every
leaf undamaged during the awful 2007 Easter freeze that defoliated all
the oaks and took out 3 years of growth on
most trees from Oklahoma to North Carolina. During the worst Texas
drought ever, where the average June thru August temperature was
102.7 degrees, 100 percent of the non-irrigated 'Fire Dragon'®
trees survived. |
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'Golden Dragon' is a cultivar I have selected because of
its very nice leaf shape and brilliant deep yellow fall color. It was
selected from a group of fifty prospects for naming because it had the highest percentage of
matching, beautifully shaped leaves and colors up early with my red
selection. Shantung maples are polymorphic, meaning they will have slightly different leaf shapes on
the same tree, but this cultivar has a very stable leaf shape. It
makes an excellent companion tree to my Fire Dragon®
Shantung. Nearly all Shantung have yellow fall color but
this is the one I have chosen to propagate for a great yellow tree. |
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'Skinny Dragon' has very narrow leaf lobes
giving it a distinctively finer texture. Some botanist describe
the leaf shape as a dissectum, or cut-leaf. So far the spring and
fall colors have been very exciting. Fall colors are usually a
deep golden yellow
but I have also seen some that are bright pinkish-orange. A very
cool, small tree. |
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Name Coming Soon Dragon (PPAF) is a 2007
chance seedling that
has the ability to keep this beautiful yellow leaf color throughout the
year. Summer growth is orange to red-orange to pink-orange
depending on the temperatures while the older leaves are bright yellow-green with
white veins. Amazingly it does not burn from the hot sun as do all other yellow-leaf trees I have
tested in Texas.. Pictured in 1 o'clock sun on July 25, 2010 after
many 100 degree summer days,
PPAF stands for 'plant patent applied for'.
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Blaine's Dragon was named after my daughter
because it was discovered when she was working with me in the summer of
2006 after she graduated with a molecular biology degree from Pomona
College and before she started working at Southwest Medical Center in
Dallas. It has about the nicest looking Shantung maple
leaves that I have ever seen with two sets of teeth on each lobe and
tiny arrow like basal lobes. It also has excellent spring colors of red and very
bright green. So far it is the only other Shantung maple besides Fire Dragon that
has a consistent red fall color in my hot climate, great spring colors,
and makes a choice small tree.. |
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'Baby Dragon' PPAF was found in the first group of
Shantung maples I grew, way back in 1994. It turned out to be a
true dwarf. This picture was taken in July 2010 when my first
successful grafts were less than 2 years old. We had a week of rain
then and the best summer colors ever were produced. It has
a very tiny leaf only about 1" across, a weeping, willow-like habit.
'Baby Dragon' is the most vigorous little tree ever as it always is
growing, yet
remains very small. It grows early in the
spring like a lot of dwarfs tend to do, but has never ever been damaged
by a
late freeze. Fall colors are very bright yellow mixed with bright
red. The mother 'Baby Dragon' PPAF was discovered in 1994 and now is
only 5 feet tall and six feet wide. |
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Witches Dragon is under review because of the
interesting leaf shape. It has an unique leaf base attachment which
makes the lobes hang down, or look droopy. Fall colors have been a
brilliant orange, or multi-colors of yellow, orange, and red. |
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Hubble Dragon grows only 1 foot per year even
under ideal conditions.
Metro Maples is looking for all sizes and colors of Acer truncatum but this one appears to be a nice
dwarf upright with a thick trunk and with rare arrow-like rear facing
basal lobes.
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A variegated Shantung maple called Mildred's
Dragon has been watched
since 2007 and now is planted in the ground to do more testing.
Grafts were made in 2011 and the growth rate was substantially increased. |
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Cork Dragon is a very slow growing
Shantung maple that produces the most heavily fissured bark of any of the
19,000+ truncatum seedlings I have grown. A leading candidate for a
Japanese maple sized tree for very hot or very cold locations, and with
very attractive bark and yellow fall colors. |
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Spotted Dragon regularly produces mixed
fall colors of yellow with orange and red spots. I have never heard
of any tree coloring up like this in the world. |
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TARP Dragon is a selection with a most
beautiful leaf, compact habit, and is another great candidate for a
Japanese maple sized truncatum for very hot and dry, or very cold
locations. TARP stands for Targeted Acer Reduction Program. |
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There is a whole new group of dwarfs discovered in
2010 that are only numbered at the moment, but will produce several new cultivars
someday. There might be an upright Dwarf Fire Dragon or even
a Baby Fire Dragon. Leaves are 1 inch or less and some are upright
and others are cascading. |
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This one has the smallest leaves I ever have
seen, and the slowest growth rate, so I could only call it Micro
Dragon. |
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The new variations just keep coming at Metro
Maples as this is believed to be a branch mutation found in 2011. It
looks like an adaptation to the ridiculous winds we had this year.
Right now I call it Temple Dragon. Grafts will be made in
2012 for further testing of this very cool leaf that has lobes only 1/2
inch wide. |
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I have 4 other test plants that are in the Shorty
Shantung class. Those that grow slow and don't get very
big. This one also has produced this same fall color pattern for 4
straight years. It has a beautiful non-truncated leaf with lots
of teeth on the lobes. |
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Doric Dragon has a columnar growth habit.
After 12 years it is 30 feet tall, but only 15 feet wide with great yellow fall color.
All branch angles are very narrow but with extremely hard wood it should be a much better and longer
lived tree than the short-lived Lombardy poplars. Fall colors are a bright yellow with some reds mixed in
some times and summer growth is a dark to very bright red depending on
temperatures. A superior, world-class street tree.
In conclusion: An amazing amount of variability in size, habit,
shape, colors, leaves, bark, and all grown from seed by just one small
maple farmer outside Kennedale, Texas in only 17 years. These trees
are more heat tolerant and more cold hardy than all other maples and may
be needed in a future full of climate change. Perhaps some day
everyone will refer to them as Kennedale Maples, or
even Metro Maples?
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