Japanese maple is a very variable elegant slender shrub or small tree, one of the most important species in Japanese garden design. It is also very popular in those parts of Europe and America where the climate allows the growing of hundreds of forms with various shades and shapes of foliage. Some of these have been tried in Finland, usually without much success.
Japanese maple also grows in its native habitat in cold winter areas, so at Mustila there are trials in progress using seed from these provenances. Two seedlings planted out in the year 2000 have succeeded almost beyond expectations and are now over 2m tall, slender small trees with beautiful foliage and glorious autumn colour. One of them was brought as seed from Canada in 1991, the other from a collecting expedition to Hokkaido in 1993. Both represent the broadleaved subspecies A. palmatum subsp. amoenum, which is sometimes considered a separate species. Two more Japanese maple of Korean origin were planted in 2011.
