Dear Sven,

I have five Japanese maples in my garden. Three have come into leaf perfectly, but on two, the bark has started to go brown from the bottom up with the tips looking alive and in bud. On one, new shoots have started growing from the base, could you tell me what the problem might be as they are three years old and have never shown these signs before.

Thanks,
Trinny

Our Gardens Expert replies:

Dear Trinny

Oh dear, this sounds to me like Anthracnose blight which causes the death of small twiggy branches and eventually the larger ones randomly on the tree. It is quite common and attacks the Japanese maple tree in spring and early summer - it happened to my Acer palmatum 'Dissectum' last and this year! I just cut away the affected branches and it seemed to sort it. You can also use copper sprays which help to stop it spreading.

The new shoots from the bottom of the tree are simply suckers and should be easy to remove. The best way is to cut them off as close to the source as possible. They can come from the roots under the surface so you can gently dig to the root and cut it off as close as you can. Suckers can become a little invasive so just keep on top of it. Acers are often grafted so the root stock will be different from the top. This means that any suckers from below the union will not be true, so in this case it is even more important to remove them.

Hope this helps!

Sven