It all started in 2002. My first job; I was an employee at a retail garden center. They were my employer, I was their paid lackey, I worked and they gave me money. They were happy, I was happy. At the time I didn't really understand the how and why of plants, I just knew they needed a lot of water. Six months later, I still didn't really understand the science of plants, but I knew I liked them, so more and more of them came home with me. It was like an organic magnetism.
By late summer of 2003 I had enrolled in the Horticulture program at Illinois Central College. An afternoon tour of the campus had turned into a stroll through the small but packed arboretum. I followed a few of the winding trails and took in the sights until I saw it. This is the tree, a Paperbark Maple:
It was a moment similar to Clark Griswold's spotting of his family Christmas Tree in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. There was no angelic chorus drifting through the air, but the sight of the tree made me stop and stare anyway.
A dark cloud of foliage was held up high by a seemingly chaotic mass of cinnamon brown twigs and branches. Strands of paper-thin bark just barely clung to their parent branches, adding a texture to the trunk that I'd never seen before.
This was a tree I needed at my home! A few short weeks and a few garden center visits later, I'd found a suitable specimen. $150 for a 6-foot balled and burlap specimen was a worth the satiation of my horticultural hunger. Here's a the happy little guy in July of 2003, a few days after planting:
It may look like just another tree to some people, but to me this is the most charming tree in the world! There's not a thing I don't like about A. griseum.
Vital statistics:
Botanical Name: Acer griseum
Common Name: Paperbark Maple
Native to: China
Cold Hardy to: Zone 5 (4)
Heat Tolerant to: Zone 7a (right along I-40 for most folks)
Foliage: Deciduous, alternate, trifoliate
Moderate growth to 20-30 feet tall and 15-20 feet wide. Leaves are late to emerge in the spring, and are among the last to change and drop in the fall. Not messy at all, good for areas near patios, driveways and walkways. I haven't seen too many of these in the Piedmont region of North Carolina; they should really be treated as an understory tree in the South.
This may be a little hard to find at your local garden centers, since it's a relatively unknown plant and rather difficult to propagate. Don't count on seed being reliable, as most professional plant propagators only see a success rate of 2 - 5%. As I mentioned above I paid about $150 for a 6' balled and burlap plant, but I've seen it in 4-5' tall 3-gallon pots available for around $50; an absolute steal!
Glamor Shot: I took a picture of this tree at Ohio State University's arboretum in March of 2004:
Other Resources:
