If you’re planning to plant an autumn blaze maple in your garden, you need to have some information about it before you do so. This article will tell you all that you ever wanted to know about this splendid tree.
A friend of mine just moved into her new home. She has a huge backyard that she wants to turn into a garden. She finally decided on getting some beautiful landscaping done, and was on the lookout for some good plants and trees for the purpose. That is when she stumbled upon a street with a gorgeous autumn blaze maple in the front yard of a house. Looking at it, she immediately called me and asked to have a look. I must say, it really did take my breath away. So we rushed home and decided to look it up and find all the autumn blaze maple information that we could lay our eyes and hands on. Here is what we found about this gorgeous tree.
Facts about Autumn Blaze Maple
- The autumn blaze maple tree had been patented by late Glenn Jeffers, who was from the Jeffers Nursery in north central Ohio.
- It belongs to the Acer rubrum x Acer saccharinum hybrid variety.
- It was first grown and developed by Poplar Farms, Inc. of Batavia.
- Under the plant patenting system in the United States, the name Autumn Blaze is filed under the number PP#4864.
- This tree is basically a combination of two types of maple trees, the red maple and the silver maple.
- It is a very popular landscaping tree because of its rich fall foliage.
- The foliage of this maple tree variety is a combination of deep red with a slight tinge of golden-orange in it.
- The average height of the tree is somewhere between 50-60 feet, and it spreads to about 30-40 feet in width.
- The bark of an autumn blaze maple is smooth. It is a shade of white when the tree is young, and then moves on to a darker shade of brown as it ages.
- This tree can grow equally well in any type of soil. It can grow in clay, loam, well-drained, and even in sandy soil.
- Using a little acidic soil can enhance the color of the fall foliage.
- As far as sunlight for this tree is concerned, it can grow well in an area that receives even just a little sunshine or is partly covered in shade.
- It is quite a hardy tree and can withstand different types of weather conditions, like the freezing cold of zone 3 and even the heat and humidity of zone 8. This extreme adaptability can be termed as a gift from its parent tree, the silver maple.
- The leaves of this maple have 5 lobes, and are slightly jagged at the ends. They appear green in summer, turn orange as fall approaches, and finally a deep crimson in autumn.
- Generally, people prefer to buy young trees for their gardening and landscaping uses, rather than buying seeds of these trees. This is because the seeds take long to germinate and develop. So, it is a better option to leave the birthing to professional nurseries.
- The growth rate of the tree is quite high, and is one of its most significant plus points. It can grow to nearly 7 feet within a year.
- The flowers of the autumn blaze maple are generally not clearly visible. The tree blooms in spring and sheds by fall, when it looks simply stunning.
- Some of the most common problems associated with this tree are outbreaks of tree diseases and fungus infestation.
- The fully grown tree has an oval shape, which can be maintained by regular pruning when the tree is young.
Those were all the autumn blaze maple facts that I thought you would like to know before you went out and bought one for your garden. It is an exquisitely beautiful tree that will definitely add to the glamor quotient of your garden.
