japanese maples and other choice acer, with adam wheeler of broken arrow

I HAVE A FOLIAGE THING, probably more so than for flowers, so no surprise that a genus of trees I’m particularly passionate about is Acer, or maple, and especially the so-called Japanese maples—which do technically flower, of course, but not in the obvious way a magnolia or dogwood might. I invited Adam Wheeler, Broken Arrow Nursery’s propagation and plant development manager, to my public-radio podcast to talk maples.

Adam and I talked about not just the Japanese types, but also other garden-sized maples for adding interest in every season and garden situation–in pots or the high shade of woodland gardens, to full-sun locations.

my maple q&a with adam wheeler

Q. When I was at Broken Arrow recently, there were many choice things to look at—but I kept noticing the maples you offer, particularly. How many do you grow?

A. In the collection at the nursery, I suspect we have 150 or 200 different maples, and really that’s the tip of the iceberg with this genus.

Q. There are a lot of native American maple species, and Asia has a lot of beauties, too.

A. Our collection spans the full diversity, yes.

Q. So what’s a “Japanese maple”?

A. Loosely “Japanese maple” would be any maple native to Japan, but really what they’re talking about is Acer palmatum, or Acer japonicum, those two species of maples.

Q. There is a third species that gets included in there in listings—the one with the hardest name to pronounce.

A. Yes, Acer shirasawanum also gets lumped in.

Q. And they don’t all look the same. As much as I would say, “I love Japanese maples,” there are some that I don’t love, and some that I really, really do.

A. Among those species, there really is a lot of diversity as far as varieties and cultivars. All those species tend to be small trees on

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