Peaches and Cream Japanese Maple

Among all the diversity of Japanese maples, we have never seen a tree so striking and unusual as the Peaches and Cream Japanese Maple. This gorgeous variety is perhaps most spectacular in spring, but its fall coloring is also wonderful, and in summer it certainly stays interesting. Ideal for special locations, for containers, and even for bonsai, this beautiful tree deserves a prized space in every garden, and it will appeal especially to collectors of rare and beautiful plants.

Growing Peaches and Cream Japanese Maple Trees

The Peaches and Cream Japanese Maple grows several inches a year into a small tree that will be 8 to 10 feet tall and up to 7 feet wide when grown in the garden, and perhaps 6 feet tall in a container. It has an upright, vase-like form, developing into a more spreading crown with maturity. This tree belongs to an interesting group of Japanese maples called ‘reticulate’. It has pronounced veins of a much deeper color than the background, making a gorgeous netted pattern across the leaves. Each leaf is medium-sized, about 2 inches across, with 7 slender lobes radiating out from the stem. The lobes divide the leaf over half-way to the base, giving the tree a wonderful look of delicacy and grace. The pronounced veins create a lovely effect on this unique leaf. The basic, summer leaf pattern is of deep-green veins on a pale green, almost cream, background, with greener margins. From a distance the tree is very bright and light, really standing out, while closer the green becomes more apparent. 

Description

Spring is the big season for the Peaches and Cream Japanese Maple, because at that time the newly-expanding leaves are very pale, but flushed and suffused with rich peachy-orange, creating the two-tone effect the name suggests. Each leaf is different in the balance of peach and cream, and the veins stand out too, varying from green to deep orange-red, so the tree is a riot of beauty and color. As summer comes the tree becomes cream, with green veins, and a little of the orange tones may persist along the edges of some leaves. Then in fall, everything changes, with the tree becoming glowing golden yellow, flushed with orange towards the ends of the branches. It really makes a wonderful showing, before the leaf fall, leaving the delicate tracery of the branches as pleasure for the winter.

The Peaches and Cream Japanese Maple deserves a special place in your garden, where you can really appreciate its ever-changing beauty. Plant it beside a pathway, where you can approach it and then see it close-up. Use it to fill spaces between evergreens around your home. Plant it in a special bed in a courtyard, or beside your terrace. Use it for a splash of brightness and season color in a woodland area. This variety is an excellent choice for container growing, where it can receive good care, and be moved around to display it at its best. It would also make a unique bonsai, planted in a beautiful container and grown on an outdoor table or shelf, to show off its ever-changing colors.

Planting and Initial Care

The Peaches and Cream Japanese Maple is hardy in zone 5 when planted in the ground, and in containers down to zone 6 or 7. It should be grown in partial shade, with some morning sun and afternoon shade. In cooler zones it will tolerate more sun without scorching, but it should always be protected from hot sun. The soil should be moist but well-drained and add plenty of rich organic material when preparing the planting site. Mulch every year or alternate years, in spring or fall, with some garden compost, rotted leaves or well-rotted manure, to retain moisture in the soil, provide valuable nutrients, and to keep the roots cool in hot weather, which this tree appreciates. Pruning is not normally required or particularly desirable, and pests or diseases are almost never problems.     

History and Origins of Peaches and Cream Japanese Maple Trees

The Peaches and Cream Japanese Maple is a unique variety of the Japanese maple, Acer palmatum. Growers and collectors divide this plant into groups, based on the form and features of the leaf. One of these is the Reticulate group, with distinctive and pronounced leaf veins, in contrasting colors to the leaf itself. The original plant of this type is called in Japan ‘Shigitatsu Sawa’, and sometimes in Western countries called ‘Reticulatum’. This tree has leaves of light green, with darker green veins. Most new varieties of Japanese maple are simply unusual seedlings selected from among batches of hundreds of young plants. The variety called ‘Peaches and Cream’ was created with more care, by Arnold Teese of Yamina Rare Plants, Monbulk, in the Australian state of Victoria – a cooler part of that country. He took pollen from a reticulate tree with some spring red coloring, called ‘Beni Shigitatsu Sawa’, and used it to carefully pollinate flowers of ‘Shigitatsu Sawa’. In 1976, among the many seedlings, he selected on, and tested it for several years before releasing it in 1980. This was ‘Peaches and Cream’, the fabulous tree we have now found some excellent stock of, and that you will love. Order now, because these rare and unique Japanese maples sell out almost as soon as we receive them.