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Get your garden out

Avcers are pretty easy tbh. They prefer acidic compost but do well in my limey soil (you apparently get better colour in more acidic water). As you are keeping it in a pot then I'd just use ericaceous compost, which is for acid lovers. They don't need a massive pot as they are slow growers. @foxface can probably advise on pruning as he has some stunning bonsai trees but repotting every couple of years if you want it to get bigger and pruning a portion of the roots if you want to keep it the same size. You don't really need to prune them unless you are going for a specific height and shape.
Other than that it's really only the position you have to worry about. They are prone to leaf burn (the cut leaf cultivars like you have especially) if you put them somewhere to sunny (this is a bigger problem for red leafs than green) and can also suffer leaf dessication if they are in a windy place. So put it somewhere sheltered and partly shady. If you have any over hanging growth from other plants then it should suit it there.
They like to be moist but not water logged and a bit dryer in the winter. I think more die in the winter from being to wet than the cold getting them (as most are pretty hardy tbh).
 
mort said:
Avcers are pretty easy tbh. They prefer acidic compost but do well in my limey soil (you apparently get better colour in more acidic water). As you are keeping it in a pot then I'd just use ericaceous compost, which is for acid lovers. They don't need a massive pot as they are slow growers. @foxface can probably advise on pruning as he has some stunning bonsai trees but repotting every couple of years if you want it to get bigger and pruning a portion of the roots if you want to keep it the same size. You don't really need to prune them unless you are going for a specific height and shape.
Other than that it's really only the position you have to worry about. They are prone to leaf burn (the cut leaf cultivars like you have especially) if you put them somewhere to sunny (this is a bigger problem for red leafs than green) and can also suffer leaf dessication if they are in a windy place. So put it somewhere sheltered and partly shady. If you have any over hanging growth from other plants then it should suit it there.
They like to be moist but not water logged and a bit dryer in the winter. I think more die in the winter from being to wet than the cold getting them (as most are pretty hardy tbh).
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Thanks for the detailed response, think we have a decent spot for it. Will get the soil recommended. Doesn't seem like we will need to do much with it as we like garden plants to grow naturally in Shape.
 
Good advice from Mort, they are pretty tough once you have found a good spot to keep one.
They will hate dry, hot wind, you want a very sheltered spot!
I use hard cat litter in all my potted plants mixed with varying amounts of soil depending on the plant.
I would go at least 50% hard cat litter for a potted acer, if you are really keen ... i would add 10% sphagnum moss as well and then use 40% John Innes No. 2 as Its high nutrient content ensures there will be plenty of food for the whole year.
Personally i would cut off the top third of your tree then place the tree in a wide shallow pot but bare in mind you should be re potting every two years.
You can use the same pot and just cut back a third of the root mass.
If you leave it more than two years it will be very difficult to remove and the tree will start to suffer.
Acers respond very well to training, branch removal, root trimming and air layering but you need to water potted trees every day in the summer and twice a day mid summer if they receive lots of sun.
 
Added some colour last oktober by planting hyacinth bulbs. Now at its peak, perhaps even just past it, but I am happy with its effect. The anemone blanda blue hasnt woken up properly yet, they were supposed to be in full Bloom together 🙂 maybe next year. On the lower left some are properly blooming but most are just forming leaves. Planted about 50 tiny anemone bulbs between the hyacinths so I am expecting a lot more to come up still. 20210416_111027.jpg
 
My mountain acer coming into leaf, I have grafted this tree many times over the last 20 years.
It started off as a shop bought bonsai in a pot but I planted it in the gound about 35 years ago and then dug it up when I moved house and replanted it on my patio boarder.
It does look a bit battle scared without any foliage but over the last 20 or so years I must of made at least 20 graftings to further make bonsai .


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Hi, I decided to post some pictures of Japanese maple flowers as they are in bloom now. Not known for their flowers which are really tiny, Japanese maples actually have very beautiful flowers.

Acer palmatum 'Senkaki' or 'Sango kaku':
senkaki 2021.jpg

The hybrid maple Acer x 'Trompenburg', clearly not a palmatum, look at the flowers! (The leaves are backlit by the sun):
trompenburg 2021.jpg

Acer palmatum 'Wou nishiki':
wou nishiki 2021.jpg
 
all these gardens are inspiring me to try and get on the top side of our little patch of horror, kids are old enough not to wreck everything now '(apart from #4, she's 13 and still in love with trampolines, hopefully she'll discover boys soon so she forgets ) The whole thing has been heinously neglected thanks to my disability and him indoors being good at digging, but useless at plant ID and having a habit of mowing into the flowerbeds . I need to give it an hour a day ideally
 
here goes -this is the present state of play on the back after a decade of having both a trampoline and a large pool on it complete with new bath waiting to go in , the left side isn't horrible other than a bit of weeding , edging and more structural planting -the bed at the end (where the golden thing is) is 6 inches deep with twitch and needs the whole bed stripping out and replanting (luckily there's a lot of stuff i can divide and move) , we can't do anything about the very straight path as it's over a foot thick and needed for OH to get his bike in the shed. Plan is to get the lawn back into the monkey nut shape it's supposed to be and probably returf if i lose the will to live getting dandelions out and possibly do a circular brick patio at the top

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Front is just hellaciously overgrown, missing a fence panel that was pushed out by the now naked conifer and in need of a vicious pruning, the gravel is colonised with lemon balm, herb robert and violets as well as the nettles that haven't been evicted, the bricks are for edging the back lawn and the possible patio and are occupying about 3sqm that i would like back

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