Acer palmatum Cascade Emerald - Japanese Maple

The Acer palmatum CASCADE EMERALD, known by its cultivar name 'Sonkoot8', is a Japanese maple with changing and colourful foliage, featuring a weeping habit. It forms a narrow, pendulous small tree with drooping stems adorned with deeply lobed leaves, with rather wide segments, emerging in spring in coppery pink turning to light green in summer and developing fiery shades of red and bronze orange in autumn. Less demanding in terms of exposure and soil than most common varieties, it prefers partial shade, but can also tolerate a drier and warmer atmosphere.

The Acer palmatum is native to eastern China, Korea, and Japan. Like all maples, it belongs to the acerous family. This Cascade Emerald cultivar stands out for its attractive narrow and weeping habit. It is a deciduous, hardy, relatively fast-growing small tree for a Japanese maple. It develops a single trunk and bears a weeping crown, supported by flexible, slender, widely drooping branches. Ultimately, it will reach about 2 to 3 m in height with a spread of 1 to 1.25 m, depending on growing conditions. Its foliage consists of palmate leaves, measuring 5 to 8 cm long, divided into 5 to 7 deeply toothed lobes. Their colour transitions from coppery pink in spring, to bright lime green, then darker green in summer, and finally to red bronze in autumn before falling. The reddish flowers grouped in small clusters in April are insignificant, but the red fruits with curved wings, 3 cm long, are interesting from September onwards. 

The Acer palmatum Cascade Emerald is ideal as a singular specimen on a lawn or in heather soil beds alongside azaleas, pieris, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, and heathers. It can also be grown in a beautiful container on a terrace or as a bonsai in a shallow pot. Despite its delicate appearance, this small tree is hardy and prefers a light, well-drained soil, not too poor, slightly acidic to slightly alkaline, and occasional watering in dry weather. Diseases, such as Verticillium wilt, are more likely to occur in constantly wet soils rather than intermittently dry ones.