Japanese Maple on Fire!

by

Of all the fall colors I’ve seen this year the Japanese maples seem to have topped all other trees.  This Japanese maple at my mom’s house was figuratively on fire with red foliage lighting up the scenery.  I didn’t have my camera with me when it was at its peak but even past peak it’s beauty can still be seen.

When bare this Japanese maple (possibly a ‘Bloodgood’) has a cool vase shaped form. 

 I’ve always enjoyed seeing pictures of falling leaves making a carpet of foliage on the garden grounds.

This maple is the mother plant of the Japanese maple I planted for dad.  Together with another Japanese maple I planted earlier in the summer (which is also from the same tree) it should one day provide a spectacular fall show.

Japanese maples may take some time to grow but the wait is worth it!

Growing Japanese Maples from Seed

If you take the fallen foliage and drop it in the vegetable garden you may end up with a few free Japanese maple trees popping up. The foliage helps to break down and nourish the beds and protects the seedlings over the winter. After a period of cold stratification the samaras (seeds) that were gathered up with the leaves will germinate. You can transplant these seedlings and put them in pots and grow them how you want them!

These seeds can make great landscape plants or could be used for root stock for grafting other varieties of Japanese maples. For more information on growing Japanese maples from seed you can review the video below or visit this post on Growing Japanese Maples from Seed.

Germinating Japanese Maple Seeds in a Plastic Bag

I love a nice Japanese maple! Who doesn’t? There are Japanese maples  with variegated leaves, ones with deep burgundy colors, others with interesting shaped leaves that are highly dissected and many other kinds. The fall color on a Japanese…

Read More

5 thoughts on “Japanese Maple on Fire!”

  1. I love them, too, and they seem to hold their leaves for a long time. They're especially brilliant when you can enjoy them backlit be sunlight.

  2. Yes, I was literally stopped in my tracks on a walk the other day when I came across one of these. There are other beautiful reds out there but nothing seems to glow from withing quite like a Japanese maple.

  3. Hi,

    I hope you're having a great week! I saw you wrote about the benefits of gardening here and thought you might be interested in an infographic I helped build. It's about the health, mental and financial benefits of gardening. Here's the infographic.

    I'm biased, but I think it's very cool! If you think your readers would like it too, please feel free to use it on Growing the Home Garden. There's code at the bottom of our post that makes it super easy to post on your blog. It's free to use, we love sharing our content! If you have any questions about posting it, let me know and I'll try to help. If you do decide to post it, please let me know : )

    Thanks!

    ~Mel
    melanie.palmero@gmail.com

  4. Maples are the best show trees in the Fall. Our little maples dont do too well as the summer heat takes it toll on them by fall….

    I too like the carpet look of leaves on the ground. Our woods look so beautiful right now being filled with fresh fallen leaves of many colors, mostly yellow for us…

Comments are closed.