Red Pygmy Japanese Maple

With its feathery, fine-textured leaves, Red Pygmy Japanese Maple will bring a feeling of lightness and softness to your landscape. Planted near the entrance to your home, it will be a welcoming tree that invites a closer look; planted by your back patio, its cloudlike foliage will inspire a peaceful frame of mind while you unwind at the end of the day. Besides its fluffy texture, this enchanting little ornamental tree also offers a marvelous show of changing colors though the seasons. Like a mood ring, its leaves shift from red in spring to green with red highlights in summer, to gold in fall. Truly a treasure.

Red Pygmy belongs to a category of Japanese Maples known as the “Linearlilobum” group, in reference to the leaves’ long, linear, ribbon-like lobes. The foliage of the trees in this group is often compared to that of bamboo. Red Pygmy is a Japanese tree discovered in an Italian garden by a Dutch nurseryman! C. Esveld Nursery of the Netherlands introduced it in 1969. Now in its sixth generation of management, this family nursery has been going strong for over 150 years. Japanese Maples remain one of their biggest passions.

Don’t panic if your Red Pygmy Japanese Maple has some leaves that are different from the super-skinny leaves it is famous for. This is normal. On some Japanese Maples, the new growth tends to produce wider-lobed or “juvenile” foliage. Once the branch is two or three years old, its leaves will assume the proper (“adult”) form. Different leaves coming from the base of the tree, however, should be pruned off.