Grow Your Secret Garden Acer Palmatum Japanese le Bloodgood

• 10 with instructions.
• Deep purple to red in Autumn..

Acer Palmatum 'Japanese le Bloodgood' -5 Rare Top choice among small trees for all-season beauty. A superb Japanese le with long lasting and unfading reddish purple leaves that turn a glorious red before they drop in autumn. Bloodgood produces small reddish flowers in May time and usually produces attractive seed pods with red wings. ing is simple, dig a hole large enough to easily take the roots, place the tree in the hole and cover the roots with soil up to the surrounding ground level. Simple enough, but bear in mind a few points. Don't add any fertiliser to the soil at this time because it may burn the roots. The tree should be ed to the same depth as it was in the pot. Having ed the tree, firm down the soil using your boots to ensure the soil is in good contact with the roots - water well if the conditions are dry. It's a good idea to tie the tree to a stake for the first three years. Stakes should be 5cm (2in) diameter and in general about 1.8m (6ft) high - 60cm (2ft) below ground, and the remainder above ground. The stake should be 15cm (6in) or so from the main stem. Tie the trunk to the stake at 30cm (1ft) intervals using plastic ties available from garden centres - do not use wire or anything which could cut into the tree trunk. The ties will need to be checked for the first couple of years to ensure that growth of the tree trunk has not caused them to become too tight. Although beautiful and delicate looking, Japanese le trees surprisingly require very little care. The only annual task that benefits the is a mulch around, but not touching, the stem. Use well-rotted compost and apply it in early Spring. The key dangers faced by Japanese les are damage by late spring frosts and water-logging. Frosts can damage the leaves, especially those of Dissectum varieties but it is only rarely al. Simply snip off badly damaged areas of the leaves and the will recover in a month or so.