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Acer palmatum ‘Katsura”

What a choice. Almost every tree is looking its

best in April, but every year I find the Japanese

maples more exciting, and this tree above all.

It leafs early in late March and seems unbothered

by a little frost. Its emerging leaves, deeply

dissected into five almost filigree lobes, are light

orange, turning a warm yellow as they mature.

They turn green for the summer, then light yellow

late in autumn. In fifteen years at Saling, on

moist clay soil, sheltered by taller trees all

around, it has grown the size you see,

perhaps 12 feet high by nearly twice as wide, with

a beautiful structure of slender branches

(I take out old dry ones) supporting its graceful

sprays of foliage.

The name Katsura means Cercidyphllum: not easy

to see the connection, except in beautiful (if very

.

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