My wife wants to plant a maple cultivar on our property for the showy red fall foliage. I have fond memories of growing a wild (invasive) Norway maple at my childhood home on Long island NY, so I’m all for growing a maple. I’m in Maryland zone 7b. we have plenty of property so planting a tree that can get quite large isn’t a problem. we can’t do silver maples or silver maple hybrids because we have a bunch of black walnuts on my property and they will get poisoned from juglone. as I understand it, all other maples are resistant. going to try and avoid anything with a high OPAL scale for allergy reasons (so only female trees). I was leaning towards red maples, particularly ‘October Glory’ for its heat tolerance and easy availability, or ‘bowhall’ for the unique upright pyramidal form. open to all suggestions
Look up Japanese Red Maple and see if it fills the bill. Several named selections are available.
Call or email Lucille of Whitman Farm in Oregon. She is maples and more. She is very knowledgeable and wonderful nursery woman to do business with.
https://www.whitmanfarms.com/allplants/ornamental-plants/maples/current-maple-list/
I live in MA and order maple trees from her.
is there a named variety you recommend? I haven’t even attempted to go down the path of Japanese maples because there are so many cultivars. I think over a thousand. there are 60 listed on Wikipedia alone. we have plenty of room for a full size native variety so that’s where I was focused
Native rock maple (sugar maple) usually does not turn very red in fall, tending more toward yellow and orange. Southern sugar maple sometimes turns red. I know of a roadside tree that is gorgeous right now with rich and intense pink, red, and orange leaves.
Japanese maples vary quite a bit for color but three you could look for are Red Dragon, Fireglow, and Emperor One.
Sugar maples are high on the Opal scale - 7 of 10
those Japanese all appear to be red year round. we are looking at ones that are green in the summer and turn red in the fall
I’ve ordered Goumi from her before. I’ll see what she has to say. looks like she doesn’t carry any Acer Rubrum though
Have you considered a red leaf maple? We have one that stays red all season.
In the spring it litters our grass with lil red sprouts in the thousands. I would be glad to ship you a pile of them if you have any interest in the spring…
October Glory and Bowhall are both solid cultivars. I have used them on many a project successfully. Another tree to considered is a sweet gum. They have similar fall color and fun seed pods. They do have a shallow root system so I wouldnt plant them next to a driveway. Im not sure what space the tree is going in but a unique tree not often used is a sourwood. It has spring flowers and great fall color. They are a smaller tree with a dense habit though so they wont provide shade for a number of years but do make for a great focal point. Last suggestion, look into a redbud. They have many fun varieties with different leaf colors. They are also my favorite flowering tree.
that’s super nice of you to offer, but I think we are going to stick to a cultivar that has green leaves in summer
We have a sweet gum, or at least half a sweet gum, as the top half broke off the day after we moved in to our house. we really hate the seed pods though
I will definitely look into sourwood
at some point we will likely get a redbud in addition to a maple. been checking out cultivars. thinking about maybe the ‘don egolf’ cultivar but not 100% sure yet
@Bigmike1116 I cannot help with the allergens, but we have two mature acer rubrums framing the back of our home, and I’m pretty sure they are just generic Arbor Day buys by the previous owners… and they are very pretty this time of year. Fiery reds and orange. They’re also lovely in the spring due to the red buds. I think they’re a great choice.
We have a row of Autumn Blaze maples. They are beautiful bright red in the fall.
“Autumn Blaze” is beautiful bright red here, too. But the OP said he can’t have silver maple or it’s hybrids which “Autumn Blaze” is.
as @randyks says, I have a number of black walnuts on the property that give off the allelopathic chemical “juglone” that will kill silver maples. I believe Autumn blaze is a hybrid cross of silver and red maple, Acer × freemanii, and is not recommended near Walnut trees
@Buckeye Acer rubrum is a diecious tree so each cultivar is either male or female. ‘October Glory’ and ‘Bowhall’ are female trees and have no pollen, resulting in an OPAL score of 1 (in a 1-10 scale, 10 being the worst). the male cultivars have an OPAL scale of 8.
Red Maple ( smaller leaves but very pretty fall colors) or Sugar Maple - yellow and red.
I just ID’ed a bunch of maples where I live and hands down the red maples are the showiest, in my opinion. The freeman maples can be good but generally it seems they don’t pop in the same way. I’m sure it depends on the cultivar but acer rubrum has an electric red that really stands out.
I will say though I think trees that turn a bold yellow in the fall are my personal favorite; I love the way they light up an environment, especially the glow on a sunny day.
Maple tree? Ha!, Come here and pick one they are the best on the planet and probably on this side of the galaxy… and they are free! Norway maple??? Euh??? They are travestite, not the R-E-A-L. Thing! Acer Acer saccharum or bust.
Marc
where is here?
its a 7 on the opal scale so a no-go for us