Hunt for the elusive mame

Anyone know where/from whom I can purchase high quality, mature mame? Can’t find any resources here in the USA. Most mame trees for sale have pencil-like trunks; not what I have in mind.

As I grow older, I’d like to cull the larger trees in my collection and scale down quantity, while adding a few high quality mame or shohin trees. Prefer to work on my trees rather than build muscle moving the larger specimens. Suggestions? I already have a few in training that were started from seedlings about 9-10 years ago. Long way to go on those.

Hello, Living in Europe, I have no address however you may want to either buy from - or contact to get information - here:

Hi @Richard_D, Have you thought about air layering part of your large trees to produce shohin or mame? You could then restyle your larger trees before culling them. You then get to keep part of your collection that are now to large for you to move around.

Thank you, Keith. I tried air layering a 10 year old crabapple last May, but it failed to take and the tree never recovered. Might try again with another species next Spring.

I also took the opposite approach with a shimpaku juniper. Cut it back to mame size and so far it has been a success. See the article I posted before I took that bold step; includes a photo of what I had in mind.

Don’t believe either can ship to the US, but thanks for these suggestions.

Hi @Richard_D, on the other hand there are quite a few species that can be bought cheaply from garden centres or nurseries which can easily produce the size of tree you want within as little as two years. Cotoneaster, larch, azalea, zelkova, yew, dwarf junipers to name but a few.