It’s hard to believe that the killing April freeze of 2007 was one year ago today in Kansas City. It devastated so much of Kansas City landscaping. Many of the trees and shrubs that were hurt never recovered. Japanese Maples were one of the most dramatically effected plants. Most of the maples died back considerably and did not look good last year. I recommended that most of my customers wait until fall and then cut back the dead wood and see how they look. However, it has become apparent that most of them will lose there attractiveness and it will take years until they look good again. Most people will end up replacing them.

Japanese maples are still good choices for Kansas City landscaping. The combination of climatic features that led to the April freeze were rare and will likely never happen to that degree again.