Looking great in early February is the fabulous red-twigged Japanese maple, Acer palmatum ‘Fjellheim’. Don’t confuse this with the better-known Acer palmatum ‘Sango Kaku’. Interestingly, Acer ‘Fjellheim’ is a witches broom (dwarf mutation) discovered on a plant of A. ‘Sango Kaku’. For us, the parent has red twigs when it’s very young, but looses the winter color quickly as it ages. The specimen below is just over 15 years old, and just continues to improve in its winter branch show every year, already surpassing 12′ in height. Reportedly, it matures at 8′ tall. It’s probably good that we don’t let our plants read on-line plant catalogs.
