Sango-Kaku

Coral Bark Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Sango-Kaku”) – 4/28/2010

This is a well known and popular Japanese Maple.  It’s called Coral Bark for its bright red stems which are said to resemble a tower of red sea coral.  The stems are brightest in Spring when it first starts to grow.  This photo shows the tree a couple of weeks after it was planted.  It kind of stuns me how small it was 10 years ago!  I made a point to get a tree that had a tight vase shape to it.  I wanted it to fit here at the intersection of the path from the driveway that goes up into the house on one side, and the path that goes into the front garden on the other.

10/29/2010

Here it is in October with the beginning of fall color on it.  This year it had a lot of red  in it, but it changes each year and other years it has more gold in it than red, as you’ll see as we go along here.  No matter the color, it’s always beautiful.

2/16/2011

You can clearly see the bright red stems in this photo.  You can also see how much it’s grown in just one year – it grows fast!    It’s a perfect fit for its space and is well away from the paths, as intended.

11/18/2011

It grew even more its first year in the ground.  The color this year is stunning, tho most of the leaves have fallen by now.

8/23/2012

I didn’t have a Spring photo for this year so you’re seeing 2 years of growth here. It’s still narrow but getting very full.

10/25/2012

The fall color here is more orange than red, which is more what we’ve seen over time.  You can still see the red stems.

5/7/2013

It’s getting really full now and starting to look like a “real tree”, which for me means when it gets taller than my head!  I’m only 5’4″ tall so I guess that’s really not a very high bar to meet…

10/31/2013

I guess you can tell this was taken on Hallowe’en.  It’s gotten significantly taller this year with vibrant orange color.

5/8/2014

I love how it droops down in this photo.  The first full flush of Spring growth covers it here and it’s heavy.

11/1/2014

The new growth at the top always turns color more slowly than the older growth.  It’ll get there but it takes awhile.

5/6/2015

It’s still growing in a tight vase shape, with a little help from my lopers.  I don’t prune it much, just enough to keep it that way.

10/30/2015

Another Hallowe’en photo.  We don’t decorate the house for trick or treaters till Hallowe’en day but you can see the corn stalks we line the driveway with behind the tree on the lawn. The kids love how we do it and we have fun too!

3/25/2016

You can really see the red stems on this one.  The leaves are just starting to appear on the branches.  It’s still a tight shape.

10/23/2016

This is the typical color it seems to turn most years, tho sometimes it has more red in it, which I personally prefer.  Not that I don’t love the colors here.  It’s getting much wider at the top but is still narrow where it needs to be out of the way.

2/6/2017

It doesn’t snow every year here in Seattle so I like to take photos when it does.  The snow really makes the red stems shine.

10/23/2017

There’s a tinge of red on the upper leaves this year, extending down somewhat to the lower parts.  This color makes me happy.  The tree is getting both taller and wider here but still stays out of the paths.  Only takes bit of pruning to do this.

4/22/2018

It’s so lovely when the leaves first start to grow.  I said it looked like a “real tree” earlier.  It’s so much more so now!

10/17/2018

Here the fall color is trending more towards a deep yellow rather than much red.  Again you can see the top colors up later.

2/9/2019

I took this after a huge snowfall last February that destroyed the big coniferous shrub behind the maple.  People called it the “Snowpocalypse”.  We almost never get this much snow.  I love to look at it but we had a lot of breakage of limbs.  Very sad.

10/24/2019

I seem to have a lot of photos taken in October here.  You can see how the stems darken to a light brown as they age. If you look closely you can still see some vestiges of red here and there.  In the back is a gorgeous Waterfall dissected maple.

6/6/2020

We’re finally up to this year.   This was just a few ago, in June, and it’s got quite a lot of new growth on it.  But as you’ll see in the next photo it still has a ways to go.  I don’t know if you’ve been watching the pine to the right here.  It’s gotten a whole lot bigger too.  I guess everything has…

9/9/2020

I took this one a couple of hours ago, just before I started this post.  Like I said you can see that it’s grown since the last photo I took in June.  It Really looks like a “real tree” now.  It’s not only taller than I am – it’s way taller than the roof!  I had to prune off one branch that was drooping down over the roof when it rained.  I try to keep things off the roof, but really we only have 2 or 3 trees that I have to worry about that with.  Most of the large trees are far away from the house and garage.

I’ve been so pleased with how fast and strong this tree has grown.  It’s wonderful to be able to walk under it when you go into the house.  And tho you can’t really see it much here I also trained the maple to merge with the Green Pine on the right to form an arch over the path as you drop down onto the lawn and into the garden.  I love tree arches and have created a few more here and there throughout the garden.  I’ve even made them with large shrubs.  They make it feel like you’re entering a different world and help to create a feeling of enclosure as you walk under them.  Maybe I’ll do a post on them sometime.

I hope I’ve given you a good look at how this special tree has grown over time.  I tried to get photos that showed it at different times of the year, including early Spring when the tree is bare and in fall when it’s in full color.  There are also a few that show it in summer when it’s green and growing.  I think it’s awesome all year long.

This tree was introduced in Ireland in 1920 and is now widely planted over much of the world.  Eventually it will grow to 30′ or 40′ tall and 20′-30′ wide.  I’m glad we have it here in our garden and that it’s taken its place in such a short time.

I hope you have some trees in your garden that you love as much as I love this one!!

Steve

Acer palmatum “Sango Kaku”

I wanted a nice tree to walk in under as we came up to our front porch. I didn’t have the room to plant a big tree so I planted a smaller one that gets maybe 25-30 feet tall – big enough for my purposes for sure. In the following pictures I’ll show you how it’s grown so well over the last few years. It was small when we got it and I had to pick one that would allow me to train it so that it wouldn’t block the paths and stairs around it. I did a lot of work to accomplish that, including at one point tying it up so that it was straight, more or less. I dunno if that was really necessary but it worked and now it’s full and big and does the job I wanted it to do. See for yourself!

April 2010 – shortly after planting

October 2010 – with some nice fall color

May 2011 – after a year’s growth

August 2011 – getting a bit sprawly

January 2012 – in a little bit of snow – why’s it leaning?

August 2012 – much fuller now – getting big

May 2013- nice spring growth

November 2013 – bare after leaf drop. See how skinny it is?

May 2014  – lots of growth!

November 2014 – Fall color – see how the tips are going last? Last to grow – last to turn…

July 2015 – still skinny

October 2015 – gentle fall color – it gets brighter!

March 2016 – just starting to grow – see how red the new growth is?

April 2016 – in the rain – makes it look huge and cool-looking!

June 2016 – today – big enough to be a real tree to walk under now – finally!

It’s a bit hard to believe that this tree grew from a few sticks in 2010 to this 20 ft tree in about 7 years of growth. It’s still growing as I write this so I know it’ll get even bigger this year -and it’s still a baby in tree years. I did manage to accomplish my goal of keeping it very narrow so that we can walk up the stairs and into the garden without hitting our heads on the branches.

It’ll get a lot wider and still another 10 feet of of height perhaps and pictures I’ve seen of big ones make me kind of shudder – it’s going to be a big tree here, despite it’s being classified as a “small tree” in my books. It doesn’t get quite as big as the straight species which will get over 40 feet – even 50 for a really big, old one.

This one will do for us. It’s also known as the Coral Bark Maple for the bright red stems it puts on when they first come out. It’s supposed to resemble a tower of sea corral in Japanese, thus the name – “Sango Kaku”. Its lovely in winter, especially with a bit of snow on the ground around it. As they age the limbs turn an undistinguished brown but I still like it fine.

It’s pretty common in nurseries and even the big box stores (where I got mine! – eek!), so if you like this you’ll probably be able to find it somewhere in your area, depending on where you live of course. But common doesn’t mean it’s not great ya know – just that a lot of us like it… 🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip thru memory lane with this wonderful tree. I only had a couple of good shots of the really excellent fall colors it turns – from the yellow I did show to a striking reddish orange that you can see from up the street. It’s a beautiful tree and I’m happy to have it to walk in under when I come home. Maybe you could do this too…

Rising from the sea…

Steve