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Red Acer not looking too well
antonyawad7NMSbf5TS
Posts: 13
Hello, I recently bought a red acer. It looked great when I first bought it from the garden center at the beginning of June. However since late July it has been looking a bit weathered.
When first buying it the only thing that struck me as being odd was that when it was in the pot it was in a solid block of clay as oppose to compost and was ridiculously heavy.
I have been giving it adequate amounts of water and it gets about 4/5 hours of direct sun per day. I am not sure if the recent heat damaged it.
Any advice/ diagnostic is appeciated as it was pretty expensive and I would like to save it. I did read something about verticillium wilt (hopefully its not that 😬). Please see attached pictures of how they looked in the garden center vs now. Thanks
When first buying it the only thing that struck me as being odd was that when it was in the pot it was in a solid block of clay as oppose to compost and was ridiculously heavy.
I have been giving it adequate amounts of water and it gets about 4/5 hours of direct sun per day. I am not sure if the recent heat damaged it.
Any advice/ diagnostic is appeciated as it was pretty expensive and I would like to save it. I did read something about verticillium wilt (hopefully its not that 😬). Please see attached pictures of how they looked in the garden center vs now. Thanks
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Hopefully someone else who knows more about them will come help out soon
Several of mine have got some burnt leaves, but that's only to be expected this summer.
If you have concerns, speak to the nursery you bought it from.
If you know the variety, google will have lots of photos so you can see how it looks.
You little tree looks great to me
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
The reds all change depending on the weather and temps etc. They often have different shades of green during summer. I have one which become olive green in summer, although it has remained much redder this year, due to it's position. In sun, they tend to remain redder than they do in shade.
Too much sun can cause a bit of scorch, as can being in a windy site, but as long as it has enough water, and good drainage, it should be fine. I can't really see any scorching though.
As @Pete.8 says - if you're in one of the areas of the UK that has had excessive heat and drought, that isn't easy, but it looks as if you have it in a good site, with other suitable planting which also looks nice and healthy, so I doubt if there's anything to worry about.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thank you all so much for your feedback, it is greatly appreciated and saved me a lot of stress, as I was thinking about all kinds of things but ultimately wasn't sure. It seems like a fine line with acers between too much/ too little sun to get the leaf colour right. Judging from your positive feedback though of the tree's health I think I will leave it where it is and see how it gets on over the next few seasons as it seems too soon to take any action. It would definitely help to know the exact specie, but on the pot it was just labelled as acer, I guess thats some garden centres for you/ combined with my inexperience of not asking at the time. I suppose being a novice I just thought it would stay that vibrant red for a bit longer. Thanks again
As long as it has the right conditions, it'll be a nice specimen in your garden. You'll get the vibrant autumn colour before the foliage drops, and you'll get the new, dark red growth in spring.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...