B & J wrote:

Lots of luck! I tried taking cuttings from a Japanese maple (Bloodgood)
three years in a row with zero success. The cuttings remained looking good
for three months but failed to root. Finally they obviously died. BTW, I use
deep six packs in a peat moss/sand mixture for all cuttings and wait until
roots start appearing through the bottom of the six pack before potting in
ProMix.

Since then I've been advised to start Japanese maples by layering and was
also told that it takes two years for the layered branches to root. I
layered a number of branches a year ago this spring, and a couple that I
check this spring had not rooted. I'm hoping for better luck by next spring.

A couple who raise Japanese maples for the wholesale trade in our area told
our gardening group this past spring that all their maples are started from
collected seeds and that most are true to the parent plant. At the moment I
have a half dozen potted seedlings that sprouted around the base of one of
the trees.

JPS


To the first, oh sigh. I'd better not get my hopes up. I thought I had
read that Japanese maple seeds did not guarantee a tree like the parent.
That being said, a) I have a number of interesting little seedlings of
various ilks, which I have put into large pots (maybe a mistake), and b)
I could just kill the yard workers who mow around my trees. (I am
always hoping for interesting little seedlings.) I do wish the
seedlings that appeared around my Moonfire maple bore some resemblance
to it, but, thus far, no.

At least one of my trees would lend itself to layering, since it has low
branches. Or are you doing air layering? I have such a black
thumb--but I would love to propagate some of my maples.

Thanks,

--
Jean B.