Crimson trees belong to a small genus of deciduous trees, which are common in Japan and China. These are stunningly beautiful garden plants, photos of which often adorn the covers of glossy magazines on landscape and design. Therefore, those people who prefer to have trees in the garden not only with delicious fruits, but also with unusual colors, plant them in front of their houses.
Japanese scarlet is a small tree by our standards, only five to seven meters high, has an ovoid crown, several trunks, and therefore at a young age resembles a wide shrub. Its main advantage is its unusual leaves - heart-shaped or rounded, serrate on the edges and with characteristic veins. Japanese scarlet looks especially beautiful in spring, when its purple-pink leaves come out of the kidneys. As their size increases, the color also changes, gradually turning into a greenish blue on top and a bluish bottom. And only the petioles remain bright purple as a reminder of the name of this tree. And in the fall, when the rest of the plants, garden and forest, lose their leaves, it again lights up with a palette of its bright colors.
Care Features
Japanese scarlet grows in the middle zone of our country quite well, tolerating even cold winters not bad. However, when planting this tree in your garden, you still need to remember where it comes from: the subtropical climate of Japan is much milder than ours, therefore, young and recently planted seedlings need careful care. In winter, they must be covered, and in the summer months to monitor the soil moisture, in no case preventing its overdrying. Japanese scarlet grows well in partial shade, and direct sunlight, on the contrary, can be harmful to unadapted young seedlings.
You need to know
Japanese scarlet is not only a beautiful garden tree, it is also very interesting as a species belonging to the group of the oldest flowering plants. The science of paleontology proved that a few thousand centuries ago, during the Tertiary period, there were a lot of forests of crimson on the Earth, so the current representatives of this family today are real living fossils.
Landing and care
Japanese crimson is planted in places with good lighting, but away from direct sunlight, since this tree has a high risk of sunburn. It will feel best on moist, fertile soil with optimal slightly acidic, close to neutral acidity. This is what determines the saturated autumn color of the leaves of scarlet. At the same time, the level for the occurrence of groundwater should be at least two meters. Japanese scarlet propagates, like most trees and bushes, by cuttings.
Cuttings with internodes are cut in late June or early July. They are rooted in summer greenhouses at a temperature of 25 degrees and a sufficiently high humidity. Scarlet propagates by seed method. It is especially interesting for landscape designers as a beautiful park tree, which can be used both in compositional exotic groups and for a single planting.