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Metro Maples was started in 1994 as a wholesale grower of
Japanese and Shantung maples, Crape Myrtles, Azaleas, and
perrenials. The garden was started in 2002 when retail sales
began. This garden was built around a Shantung maple test plant that
was planted in the year 2000. Most of the other trees and azaleas
were planted in the spring of 2002 as shown here.
The water feature is actually a storage pond for irrigation from my two
shallow water wells and is six feet
deep and holds about 15,000 gallons.
The fencing is just going up and it was decided to keep this part of
the Arboretum, called Tsuki Gardens, the size of an average backyard, or
about 80 feet by 50.
Tsuki Gardens contains most of my favorite plants from my 22 years of
collecting thousands of plants and are ones that have performed well and
are exceptionally beautiful.
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Here is what it looked like in 2001 when only a Trident and
a Shantung maple were planted and the rubber liner was still not covered
with rocks and azaleas.
The liner originally collasped after a heavy rain, pulling down all the
rocks into the water. Because of my sandy soil I installed a
steel-reinforced concrete ledge to support the liner and rocks. |
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In 2002 the mother 'Fire Dragon'®
Shantung maple was moved
into Tsuki Gardens. It had been in a 3 gal, a 7 gal, and planted
outside the gate over the previous 4 years. It was given a prominent
spot and was one of the main reasons to start building the fence and
creating a display garden. |
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By the spring of 2007, after 5 years of growth, the mother
'Fire Dragon'®
is now about 18 feet tall and is beginning to
spread.
This tree hand been pruned hard on just about every branch for 3 years
to get as much scion wood for grafting new 'Fire Dragon' trees as I could
get. Since 2005 I have had enough new grafted Fire Dragons to use
for grafting that I have not had to prune this one anymore. |
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Besides the two Shantungs in Tsuki Gardens the small garden space began to fill-up
with 35 other maples, 5 rhododendrons, and 50 azaleas.
Metro Maples Arboretum has several goals: (1) to educate the public on
the vast amount of beautiful plants and trees in our world, (2) to support
conservation efforts to protect our environment, (3) to do plant research
to introduce new cultivars to the public.
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The pond in Tsuki Gardens has nearly 100 Japanese Koi.
It uses no filtering system so the water has a green color.
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Here is Rhododendron makinoi, narrow leaf form, that I have
been growing for 11 years, starting from a 3 year-old plant. This
rhododendron comes from the mountains of China at an elevation of 8,000
feet and receives more than a hundred inches of rain per year. It
has proven to be heat tolerant and does not get nearly that much
water.
I
believe you would have to travel over 2,000 miles from this R. makinoi in Texas to find another one like it as my friends in Oklahoma and
Arkansas cannot grow it due to their colder winters.
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Anah Krutschke is a ponticum hybrid rhododendron that I have
grown for 20 years. It was
recently moved from my house, this time to the new garden at Metro
Maples.
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There are now about 20 different rhododendron varieties at
the Arboretum.
They bloom mid-April into May.
I have chosen the rhododendron varieties carefully from 22 years of
testing them in my backyard. I have tried over 300 different
cultivars to find the best.
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Here is the first picture of the new 2008 garden by the
front parking lot. I used a lot of aged pine bark to grow them
in. Many trees, azaleas, and rhododendrons were dug and moved from
my home over the winter. The biggest that I moved was my original
Suminagashi that was 18 feet tall.
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This is Japanese maple Katsura which begins spring earlier
than most maples, and is a gorgeous orange and yellow. This maple is
about 14 years old and about 10 feet tall.
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Inaba Shidare is a Japanese maple dissectum, or lace-leaf,
that is filling-up a large portion of the west side of Tsuki
Gardens. This photo was taken in May when it is a deep shiny
purple-red. O' Kagami is the upright maple to its left and has
deep, almost black, purple-red large leaves.
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This Japanese maple is displayed only in spring.
It is called Tsuma beni, translated means crimson fingernails. It is
kept in a pot in full-sun during spring to get
these colors. Later it would burn in the hot sun so it is then hidden in
a shaded growing area until the next spring.
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Metro Maples has lots of large Japanese maple dissectums for
people to look at, such as this Crimson Queen in fall colors.
Other specimen laceleaf maples to look at are: Inaba Shidare,
Orangeola, Tamukeyama, Red Dragon, Viridis, and Waterfall.
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For those of you who like the upright maples, such as this
unnamed one-of-a-kind seedling that is always a brilliant mix of
fall colors, there are plenty to look at such as: Osakasuki, Red
Emperor, Katsura, Boskoop Glory, Bloodgood, Fireglow, O kagami, Moonrise,
Sango Kau, Beni Kawa, Sumi nagashi, Atropurpureum, Trompenburg, Higasayama,
Koto no Ito, Meigetsu, Aconitifolium, Seiryu, Shin deshojo, Beni tsukasa, and Aka
shigitatsu sawa.
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There are also specimens of the dwarf Japanese maples like
this Mikawa yatsubusa. Other large dwarfs include: Shaina,
Tama hime, Murasaki kiyohime and Goshiki kotohime. |
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There are many large Shantung maples too. So far a
total of 40 Shantung are planted to be a part of the
Arboretum. Five of them are 'Fire Dragon' Shantung and 35 of
them are distinctly different looking trees.
Here is my
cultivar I call 'Fire Dragon' with Ginkgo 'Autumn Gold'. This
combination was so good that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram used it on a
front page story in December 2007.
The Arborteum has some Shantung over 25 feet tall and one has an 8-inch
diameter trunk.
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There are more different Shantung maples at Metro Maples
than you can believe, like this dwarf Shantung that is only 4 feet tall
afer 14 years. I have called this 'Baby Dragon'.
I have found the different Shantungs from growing and observing over
9,000 Shantung from seeds.
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Trident maples grow fast and are another favorite tree in
the arboretum. There are 6 Tridents planted. |
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There are 8 native to Texas Bigtooth maples planted at Metro
Maples. Some turn red or yellow, or orange as this picture shows. |
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Paperbark maples are much appreciated by visitors,
especially when backlit by the sunlight. The largest one is planted
in front of Tsuki Gardens. |
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One of the many unusual trees that is growing well.
This one is Persian Ironwood, or Perrotia perisca. It comes from Iran
and is a very
interesting tree with good fall color and cream, gray, green and brown
exfoliating bark. Grows in well drained soils and seems to be
drought tolerate. It has never been bothered by insects or disease. |
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There are hybrid maples like this Autumn Blaze. This
maple is a cross of a silver and a red maple. The largest is now
over 30 foot tall. |
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Four different Ginkgo trees can be seen at Metro Maples.
This is our largest, Autumn Gold. |
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Over 100 azalea varieties are at Metro Maples arboretum, choosen from the
400+ varieties I
have tested. Here is azalea Tradition used as a specimen plant. |
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I love the azaleas from Japan that bloom later than the
azaleas most people know about. These azaleas are called Satsuki
azalea and have been an important part of Japanese gardens for over 300
years and their work has resulted in several thousand cultivars.
Here is a close-up of a Kogetsu-no-homare flower. I have seen over 10
different flower patterns of stripes, spots, solids, and 4 different
colors on this azalea. I received cuttings of
Kogetsu-no-homare in the mail from Japan from Hideo Susuki in 1997 as I
could not find it in the United Sates.
Many of the Japanese azaleas are tender and can suffer flower damage or even be killed
from our sudden cold snaps so I grow some of my favorites in pots so that
I can protect them when needed.. |
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Many of the Japanese azaleas can have different colored
flowers and/or color patterns, as seen in this one named Shinsen.
Many people at first do not believe that the Satsuki azaleas in the
Arboretum can have such different flowers on the same plant. Here's
how they do it. These azaleas have unstable DNA and after time the
plants will express different aspects of their DNA causing different
colors and patterns to appear. |
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Here is azalea Germanique showing the various flower
patterns on the same plant. They are not that difficult to grow in
containers. Make sure the mix drains well, let it dry-out slightly
between waterings, fertilize frequently but lightly, and watch out for
sudden freezes. |
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Here is one of the best pictures I have taken so far.
This is a Huang azalea 2-1-72 but it is a cutting I took and rooted of
a solid pink branch which resulted in a solid color azalea. When you
add the spring color of an Acer palmatum 'Orange Dream' in the background
and a butterfly you get a great picture.
Photos taken of this combination by Texas Gardening magazine
were used in their Sept/Oct 2007 issue. |
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Fall can be spectacular as seen with Acer truncatum 'Fire
Dragon' and a seedling Shantung in 2005. The confiers in the photo
have now been removed so the Shantungs would have more space. |
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Tsuki Gardens in the fall with a Fire Dragon, Waterfall and
Orangeola showing some colors even after a long and hot fall season. |
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In case you think winter is boring, look at Tsuki Gardens on
Valentine's Day of 2004. |
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Orangeola Japanese maple is a favorite and there are two
very nice specimens at Metro Maples. This is one that I have
behind my mailbox at home right now and will someday be used in a future garden
expansion on the Maple Knoll.
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