ADAMS ARAKAWA TRIDENT
ADAMS' BONSAI
Lynchburg, VA
Trident maples have always been one of my favorite species for bonsai. When I happened upon a wonderful rough bark trident in my teacher's garden, I immediately wanted some to work with. I soon found that almost all of the rough bark tridents available in the US were grafted, not great for bonsai. When I requested seeds from my teacher, he laughed and offered all I wanted as the seeds rarely come true to the mother tree. 100 seedlings from that tree were planted out in my garden and grown like my regular tridents. After three years, only one was unusual. However, it had nice rough bark. It was dug, potted and used to learn the process needed to clone it. The process was slow but successful. Now there are rough bark tridents, the Adams Arakawa trident, being produced for bonsai use. The characteristics are as follows: rough brownish-gray bark in the 2nd or 3rd year, fast growing, similar hardiness to regular tridents, beautiful scarlet red leaf color in the fall, small leaves, and ready back budding. At present, availability is mostly young rooted cuttings. The annual crop is released in late summer to those who are one the reservation list. currently one to a customer on a first come, first served basis. Contact me via email or phone to be placed on the reservation list.
Older rooted cutting in 12" pot showing typical bark.
The original unusual seedling. Always grown in an 8" or smaller pot. Untrained. Used to propagate.
Typical spectacular fall foliage on an older individual plant and a pot of rooted cuttings. All of the clones change color the same night and have the same color.
