Inspiration Bradley's 3rd grade painting of the tree in May 2004 (with the artist's name in "Japanese"). Left: May 24, 2006. I love the spring color of this tree.

May 20, 2006 Kaptain Karl watches cars on the street, people on the sidewalk, and maybe a bird or two, out by the Japanese red maple. The tree looks pretty from the window too, in my opinion. I don't know what the Kaptain thinks about it.

April 5, 2005 Early spring bud.

April 11, 2006 I love the details.

April 23, 2005 The leaves emerge like old hands waking up.	May 3, 2005 When I stare at this picture, the clouds move. May 2004 Samaras are also known as helicopter seeds for their twirling propellers.
Autumn 2002 I took these pictures before I started carefully dating all my pictures!

Click for details

I can see the leaf veins shining through on a rainy May morning. We were rushing to walk Bradley to school when he stopped in his tracks. "Mom! Look at that!" he said. "Isn't that beautiful?" Going back for the camera only made us a little bit late. Well worth it in my book. Teaching my children to stop and appreciate the beauty in nature is all part of the plan. By the end of June, some of the inside leaves begin a slow fade to pale green, shown here in the light of the late afternoon sun.

Oct. 11, 2004 Any day now, the greenish tinge will turn bright red. Nov. 7, 2004 The neighbor's 100-foot red maple (no particular acer rubrum cultivar) towers over my Japanese variety. Some years, the generic maple turns bright red; this year, yellow. Go figure.

Growing I just love watching trees grow!

Nov. 18, 2004 Early freeze, before the leaves fell, and they all curled up and turned black.

January 2005 . . .

. . . we wait again for spring . . .

For Julie's detailed comments, see the Japanese Red Maple facts page See the Japanese Red Maple growth chart Read the latest Tree Grower's Diary blog entry