If you love Japanese red maples as much as I do, then you probably can't get enough information about them. Here is one of the top books on the subject of Japanese Maples in general, not just the red variety. And you can own it TODAY for less than dinner at a nice restaurant. Plus it will look great on your coffee table! 
The quintessential book on raising Japanese maple trees is hands down
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The week my Japanese Red Maple plants were due to be delivered, I alternated between anticipation and dread. Would I make too many mistakes in their care and damage them or worse, kill them? Who was I kidding? I had never had a green thumb!
Still, I was hopeful. The information I'd read about caring for Japanese Red Maples led me to believe that they weren't that delicate. So I kept telling myself that this reaction was just like stage fright. Once on stage I'm no longer nervous. With any luck, that would be the case here. When my plants arrived, I would be fine. I hoped...
The almost 100-degree (F) temperatures that week also had me nervous. What shape would the plants be in by the time they arrived? The longer I waited, the more I was certain that I had made a horrible mistake. I had no planting containers or potting medium and no self-confidence to speak of.
Contacting the backyard message board as well as the seller soon reassured me. The plants would be fine for a day or two after they arrived. That would give me more time to locate pots of the correct size and to decide what kind of soil to use. What a great group of people they are! They dispelled most of my fears and offered great advice above and beyond what I expected when I posted my confession that I thought I'd made a dreadful mistake.
At last the waiting was over. A box arrived far smaller than I ever would have imagined, containing 10 Japanese Red Maple plants. One look inside the newspaper-wrapped plant on top was all it took. Tiny red leaves, formed exactly as a full-grown leaf only in miniature, poked their heads out of their wrappings. I was in love.
The plants were taller than I'd expected, since they'd been advertised as 6-10 inches. Most were 12-16 inches, so I got a bargain.
Each plant was potted in a 2-inch container, ready to be potted up or put directly into the ground. I chose to pot mine because I'm not ready to create planting beds. (I have to do something next year...)
In the the photo at the beginning of this article you can see the 10 plants in their new "1-gallon" containers. Next to them on the old porch swing is the shipping container. See what I mean about its being smaller than you would expect?
Who would have thought a woman who, as a child, had to have her hands washed every few minutes when playing in a sand box would willing dirty her hands with potting medium? It's amazing what love will do. And I do love my Japanese Red Maples!
Japanese red maples have held a fascination for me since 1986. We had just moved into a new neighborhood in suburban Maryland and to my delight, the house two doors up had the most glorious, mature Japanese red maple tree in the front yard. I loved the color, the spidery-edged, delicate leaves, and most of all I loved the color.
When I looked into purchasing one at a local nursery, sticker shock sent me running for the exit. Well, not literally, but you get my point. Japanese Red Maples are highly prized and have a price tag to match.
After that I just admired my neighbor's tree and others that I encountered with some envy and unfulfilled yearning.
Fast forward to a few months ago.
I've been studying how to create and market products on the internet since 2005, but other than my website for fiction writers (see The Story Ideas Virtuoso blog here) I hadn't been able to find a niche that I could be passionate about that centered around a topic that lends itself to a business.
When I visited a site that specializes in helping people find a career path related to their passion, I came across a man who used his backyard, which is about a half acre, and created a business out of making rooted cuttings and then selling the resulting plants from his driveway in the spring for less than $5.00 each. He makes more than $30,000 each spring just from this.
His nursery area is less than one 20th of an acre and he creates thousands of plants just from the cuttings he makes. I looked at his site, which has a wealth of information on everything from building plans for a potting bench, to how to make cuttings, to a recipe for the to-die-for "Dirt Farmer Fudge" and everything in between.
One of those in-between topics is about growing Japanese Red Maples trees. He had a training course for sale on the site about propagating plants and starting a backyard nursery.
But even though it sounded fantastic and my heart beat faster with a little thrill of excitement when I thought about creating rooted cuttings of a tree I have loved for decades, I just couldn't afford it. Nevertheless, I subscribed to his weekly newsletter and began enjoying the articles and tips he shared each week. And I also devoured all his free gardening and plant growing articles.
Then a couple of weeks ago he announced that he had restructured his course offering to fit the global economic climate. It was suddenly affordable to me.
So I took the plunge, paid the significantly-UNDER-100-dollars-price, and started my training. A few days later he temporarily opened up his backyard growers message board and I signed up. That same day I took another big step. I placed an order for 10 Japanese Red Maples through the board.
For someone who usually wonders and questions and dithers and never gets around to actually DOING things, I took sudden action -- surprisingly.
If you're interested in the course that has so inspired me, stay tuned to this blog. I'll have a special link just for my readers. In the meantime, remember to follow your passions and never stop dreaming and aspiring to go higher and to be more.
1. Japanese Maples Book:
Japanese Maples: Momiji and Keade
2. Japanese Red Maple Seeds:
Japanese Red Maple 20 Seeds - Acer
3. Japanese Red Maple Tree:
Japanese Red Maple Tree, 18 to 28 inch, Lightly Branched (Grown and Offered by Empire National Nursery)
4. Make Money With Japanese Red Maples
Make $300 A Month Raising Japanese Maples - Or Your Money Back!
5. Amazon Kindle
Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G, 6-inch display
