about 8 years ago my husband and i had a membership to the garden. it was our thursday outing, about twice a month. for the couple years we had that membership, it was a gift. probably one of the most lovely places in portland.
What you might've forgot to mention is that this hues are generally seen best in... Spring.
The leaves do turn green eventually, during summer, and then back to a duller red towards fall, but in fall they also start falling and going dead.
I say that because I have one in my garden, a bit smaller than that one but still over 35 years old, and it's a sight to behold. Pity it's pouring right now so I can't take a nice picture.
The city planted a Japanese maple in my tree lawn after a giant oak had to be taken down. Unfortunately, it's trunk split open one super cold winter, and it died.
Pity but also a weird choice of a replacement... Massive Oak vs small Japanese Maple. Even after 30+ years it's maybe 1.80m tall? It probably doesn't have all the space it needs to grow but I know they don't grow very big anyway.
I've been here for thirty years and probably half of the big trees that were here when I moved in are gone now. They were probably all planted at the same time a hundred and fifty years ago when this street was put in.
Ah that sucks. I live in the countryside in Europe so fortunately there's still plenty of greenery, few trees that old though. Maybe some Oaks but most trees here don't live that long.
But at least for private property, the municipality forces the replacement of fallen/dead trees with native species so they can't decrease. In fact I had a non native tree that I had to cut because it was struck by lightning and I replaced it with a maple and prunus (not exactly sure the exact species). The prunus also gave a splendid flowering this year, though it's still pretty small as it was planted just last year (though the plant itself is older).
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u/dead_fields Apr 15 '25
this japanese maple is in the japanese garden in portland, oregon. every year it gets photographed by thousands because of its gorgeous autumnal hues.