Good Evening All,

This past weekend I purchased a stock Japanese Maple Acer palmatum 'Beni Hime' at Cass Bonsai which is a dwarf variety that J.D. Vertrees & Peter Gegory say is well suited for container culture and bonsai. Since my love is shohin bonsai I thought it would be fun to work with. Anyone have a tree of this variety and be willing to post? I'll post some pics of mine in a few days.

Regards to all,

JRob 

Acer palmatum 'Beni Hime' is a beautiful highly desirable cultivar for the collector. It is a thin stem dwarf, slightly pendulous, with the smallest leaves of the species i believe. It is sensitive to fungal problems on the leaves if given constant moisture to them ( daily watering must not hit the leaves). I think it is best suited in the garden or in a pot in its natural form which would be a small canopy of drooping branches. As a bonsai, first you would have to accept the graft union, then the incredibly slow growth of thin weak very brittle stems. It may look incredibly beautiful in leaf, but will not be shown out of leaf. Maybe try it in a kusamono.