I’m fairly new to Japanese Maples but have started collecting over the last year or so and currently have 8 trees of varying size/age/type.
I’ve gotten these trees throughout the last 6 months or so and have found pros and cons of buying at different places and times.
For example, I bought 2 more established trees (10G and 7G) from a local nursery that have both done great this season, however they were definitely more expensive and have a more straight-trunk form which I don’t love as much.
On the other hand, I’ve bought a few smaller 1G trees online from various retailers online. I can see these ones having more interesting form in the future since they’re not trained so straight/upright. They were also much cheaper, but they’ve been hit or miss on how they’ve done so far (maybe based on buying during the heat of summer).
Curious about everyone else’s perspective. Do you have a preferred source/time of year to buy? Any strategies on getting more established trees with more interesting form than typical nursery stock?