Red Maple (Scarlet or Swamp Maple)
Acer rubrum (ACERACEAE)
Planting and Growing Red Maple Trees
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow red maple (scarlet or swamp maple) in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, and nuts of red maple (scarlet or swamp maple)
- Growing conditions for red maple (scarlet or swamp maple)
- When to plant red maple (scarlet or swamp maple)
- How to plant red maple (scarlet or swamp maple)
- How to prune red maple (scarlet or swamp maple)
- Watering, fertilizing, and care of red maple (scarlet or swamp maple)
- Landscape uses of red maple (scarlet or swamp maple)
- Pest and disease control for red maple (scarlet or swamp maple)
Growing Red Maple Trees
Many cultivars of fast- to medium-growing, upright, round-crowned, dense, deciduous trees, to 120 ft. (37 m) tall, with shiny, deep green, oval to round, deeply toothed, 3–5-lobed leaves, to 6 in. (15 cm) wide, with pale green undersides, turning bright red in autumn, and with red turning brown, smooth bark.
Common cultivars include Acer rubrum ‘Autumn Blaze’, ‘Columnare’, ‘Northwood’, ‘Shade King’, and ‘V. J. Drake’.
Red Maple Planting and Care Guide
Flowers and Seeds
Multiple tiny, yellow green flowers in spring, borne in dangling clusters, form typical reddish brown, 2-winged seed in autumn.
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 3–9. Best with winter chill.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist, well-drained soil. Fertility: Rich–average. 6.0–7.0 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Partial shade. Space 20–30 ft. (6–9 m) apart.
Proper Care
Moderate. Keep evenly moist until established; water when soil dries thereafter. Fertilize in spring until established. Prune in autumn. Propagate by cuttings, layering, seed.
About This Species
Good choice for accents, allées, screens, specimens in open, woodland gardens and lawns. Drops flowers, seed, requiring maintenance. Invasive. Shallow rooted. Smog tolerant. Pest and disease resistant. Chlorosis susceptible.
Common Species of Maple
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- Acer buergeranum, trident maple
- Acer campestre, hedge maple
- Acer cappadocicum, coliseum maple
- Acer carpinifolium, hornbeam maple
- Acer glabrum, Rocky Mountain maple
- Acer griseum, paperbark maple
- Acer japonicum, full-moon maple
- Acer lobelii, Lobel maple
- Acer macrophyllum, big-leaved maple
- Acer mandshuricum, Manchurian maple
- Acer negundo, box elder
- Acer nigrum, black maple
- Acer palmatum, Japanese maple
- Acer pensylvanicum, striped maple
- Acer platanoides, Norway maple
- Acer pseudoplatanus, sycamore maple
- Acer rubrum, red maple
- Acer saccharinum, silver maple
- Acer saccharum, sugar maple
- Acer spicatum, mountain maple
- Acer tantaricum, Amur maple
- Acer tschonoskii, Tschonoski maple
About Maples
The Acer genus includes about 200 species of highly varied, broad-leaved, deciduous trees, including both small landscape trees and those with great stature. They are native to the northern hemisphere’s temperate zone of North America, Europe, and Asia.
All maples are hardy and grow best in cold-winter areas that experience at least 1,000 hours of winter chill at temperatures below 40°F (4°C).
Maples are prized for their narrow or round-crowned form and their foliage, which colors beautifully in autumn in shades of bronze, gold, red, and yellow. Many cultivars also have been developed with foliage that is bronze, purple, or red throughout the season.
Maples generally are slow-growing, long-lived trees with dense foliage that reach sizes ranging from 6 ft. (1.8 m) tall for shrublike species to 100 ft. (30 m) or more for the largest species.
They vary in their resistance to pests and diseases, with aphid, borer, and scale or canker, tar spot, and verticillium wilt being the frequent causes of infestation and infection.
Many different cultivars may be used in a landscape. Choose from among some of the most popular maple species above, listed at left.
Planting and Caring for Maples
Maples and box elders grow as low ground covers, as shrubs, and as small and large trees, depending on their species. All are broad-leaved and deciduous, with hand-shaped, lobed, and pointed leaves and distinctive, two-winged seeds that carry great distances in the wind. Maples have single and massive or multiple and narrow trunks with many spreading branches.
Plant maples in rich, moist, well-drained soil, either acidic or neutral. Since all landscape trees grow best when planted in unamended soil, test the acid-alkaline balance of your site before you plant. Maples should have soils in the 6.0–7.0 pH range. Choose those species that fit your climate and site.
When planting maples, carefully match the depth of the planting hole to the soil line on the rootball of your tree. Backfill around the rootball with native soil and give the tree ample water for the first few seasons, keeping the soil evenly moist. It may require several seasons for the tree to begin active growth after transplanting.
Maples are the best choice for autumn foliage color in cold-winter climates. Their care needs include regular raking of fallen catkinlike flowers, leaves, and winged seed. Large maples are good shade trees, while those with smaller, more delicate forms are good landscape accents.
Cultivars of the species A. palmatum, Japanese maple, have long been the tree of choice for bonsai and for oriental-themed gardens.