Japanese Maples and reading The New Yorker

Okay, this is not about anything in The New Yorker about Japanese maples. They are two different topics.

It is just that this morning I was reading The New Yorker and, as I usually do, needed to look up a couple of words. So I created the "Words I Looked Up Today" list in the column, just for fun. (Please don't give me a hard time for looking up easy words. I'm curious, and always ready to doubt that I know what I think I know. And sometimes I want to feel that I get what the writer is trying to say.)

That's it for The New Yorker title.

I planted two Japanese maples in the back yard (end-of-season half-price at Bordine's on Torrey Road), and thought I'd learn a little more about the trees, and share it with you.

The tree I planted farthest back in the yard is a Coral Bark Japanese maple, Acer palmatum "Sango-Kaku." It is the more upright of the two trees, but should grow into a pretty rounded shape. Slowly. Its distinctive featue, I understand, is its red bark in the winter. Here's a link:
Coral Bark Maple

The other, planted at the back of my hosta garden, is a Katsura Japanese maple, Acer palmatum "Katsura." It spreads as wide as it is tall, and grows only a few inches a year. It leaves early with a very bright green leaf with red tinges in the spring. The plant yellows out in the summer. Another link:
Katsura Maple

Well, time to water the new plants.

Good morning (just barely)