Maple trees are one of the most requested trees in the nursery here at the Gardens. Besides having amazing fall colors, they are durable, wind-tolerant, and fast growing. So maples are king in the tree world. I love maples too, for their color and fast growth rate. And I love maple syrup! But there is a plethora of maple trees to choose from. Just like oaks, there are some things to know before picking and planting a maple tree for your own home.
With more than 200 species and subspecies of maples across Asia, Europe, and North America, it can be difficult to choose. But not every maple is created the same, and certainly not every one belongs in your garden. Here in the Central Great Plains region, choosing maple trees for your garden is easy if you have a good guide. I will try to be your guide to maple trees.
With 13 species of maple trees in North America, and hundreds of cultivars to choose from, it can be difficult for many homeowners to choose. Each individual garden center and big box store has its own choices for maple trees. Here at Grimm’s Gardens, we grow as many cultivars and species as possible in our Arboretum, testing their durability and hardiness, before putting them for sale in the nursery.
Native Maple Trees
Among the 13 native species of maple trees in North America, 5 species grow within our region. Among these, the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum), Red Maple (Acer rubrum), and Black Maple (Acer nigrum) are good trees for our landscapes. The other 2, Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) and Boxelder (Acer negundo) are often used in landscaping, but have too many problems to be regular trees for the landscape. But, some of our favorite cultivars come from hybridization between red and silver maples.
The reasons for choosing native maples over nonnatives are: cold hardiness, climate acclimation, and wind durability. Here in the Central Great Plains, wind and high summer humidity are our toughest issues over growing trees. But native and hybrid maples are well suited for our region. I will discuss each species with it specific cultivars, chosen by us for you, at our expense.
Sugar Maple – Acer saccharum
Hiawatha, KS is home to Grimm’s Gardens, (though we are actually 12 miles away in the country). But we share the love of maple trees with the community. Hiawatha is known as “The City of Beautiful Maples” because of all the pretty sugar maples. It has been said that the sugar maples in the town were brought from the eastern US. But I think it more likely that they came from the Missouri River bluffs in Doniphan and Atchison counties, where they grow wild.
No matter where the sugar maples of our small towns came from, they are a durable and hardy tree, with great fall color. Many have been selected for fall color alone. The sugar maple trees grow 40 to 60 feet tall and 30 to 50 feet wide, making them a large shade tree for the landscape. Some of our favorite cultivars have leaf tatter resistance. This means that they hold up well in strong winds. And while the sugar maple is not the fastest growing maple tree, it does well, growing 2 to 3 feet per year with adequate moisture.
Cultivars of Sugar Maple Trees
While we do not grow or sell all of the following cultivars, we have enough of them in stock during the growing season to keep customers guessing. But you do not need too, all of them are our favorites. You can rest assured that when you choose a tree at Grimm’s Gardens, you are getting a tree that will grow in the Central Great Plains.
Oregon Trail
Also called the Hiawatha Maple, this maple tree was chosen by the community among several selected trees, after the 2007 ice storm. During and after the storm, only a handful of sugar maples emerged unscathed by the ice. The ‘Oregon Trail’ maple had no ice damage, and its summertime leaf cover is durable and tatter-resistant. The fall color of the Hiawatha maple is typical for the town, starting with rusty-red oranges, and turning all red by mid-October. It grows like the species, 40 to 60 feet tall by 30 to 50 feet wide.
Fireside
The name implies greatness of color. And you would be right in thinking that. If anything, ‘Fireside’ has better fall color than ‘Oregon Trail’. It was not selected by the community, but rather Doug Grimm for its coloring and durability. He thinks its better than ‘Oregon Trail’ for fall color. He certainly has an eye for beauty. Unfortunately, ‘Fireside’ is out of production, and what we have on hand is it for the next few years, until we can get another grower to get it going.
Fall Fiesta
One of the best cultivars for our area, this maple tree boasts strong branching and excellent fall color. It is called Fall Fiesta because the colors are red, orange, and yellow. The colors seem to dance with each other each autumn. It grows up to 50 feet tall by 30 feet wide, slightly smaller than the species. But it is still considered a great shade tree.
Flashfire
Virtually unknown to the general public, ‘Flashfire’ sugar maple is an introduction from J. Frank Schmidt, one of the industry leaders in growing trees. Only KAT Nursery does it better. Flashfire maple trees grow 30 to 35 feet tall and wide. They are a smaller selection, but still provide great fall color in bright scarlet, and durability in the landscape.
Pumpkin Spice
This is another cultivar from Doug Grimm. Found growing northwest of Hiawatha at an old farmstead, ‘Pumpkin Spice’ delivers a soothing orange color, parading over its fiery red cousins. If you get tired of all the reds in the landscape from maples, oaks, and others, then choose ‘Pumpkin Spice’. However, just like ‘Fireside’ we have a limited number of these trees for 2024-25. And I do not know when they will be in production again.
Apollo
The last sugar maple on my list is ‘Apollo’. This is a golden-orange turning tree, more yellow than orange. I think the yellows are more my favorite than either the reds or oranges in the landscape. Or maybe a mix of them? Eh. Anyways, ‘Apollo’ is also a more narrow variety, growing 30 feet tall by just 10 feet wide, making it perfect for many downtown areas.
Red Maple – Acer rubrum
Native primarily east of the Missouri River, the red maple grows well in the Northeast portions of Kansas. You can also find it growing westward, put into a variety of landscapes, with irrigation. There are several good cultivars. However, the hybridization between red and silver maples has resulted in tougher trees for our region. And faster growing! In the forest, red maples grow up to 100 feet tall by 60 feet wide. Fall color is generally red to burgundy.
Cultivars of Red Maples
Burgundy Belle
One of our own again. The original tree this selection was made from resides in Wathena, KS, just 30 miles east of Hiawatha. This stately maple tree has excellent durability in our winds, great burgundy-red fall color, and grows 1 to 3 feet per year, similar to a sugar maple. It grows 45 to 50 feet tall by 40 feet wide, with symmetrical branching.
Brandywine
Another favorite maple for our area, this one is used by many of our Kansas City nurseries. Brandywine has wine-red fall foliage, symmetrical branching, and grows 40 feet tall by 30 feet wide. And it is seedless!
Redpointe
Another cultivar from J. Frank Schmidt, this maple tree grows almost as fast as the hybrid maples. With a symmetrical habit, ‘Redpointe’ grows 45 feet tall by 30 feet wide. It has beautiful scarlet red fall color.
Red Sentinel
We have to keep having narrow trees for city streets, right? Well of course. ‘Red Sentinel’ is an upright, narrow tree, perfect for places where space is limited. I can even imagine a row of these being used as a screen for a large office complex. It grows 40 feet tall and 18 feet wide, making it excellent for just such purposes. The fall foliage is bright red.
Hybrid Red-Silver Maple Trees
I have to put it this way because there are some other great hybrid maple trees, such as those between Shantung and Norway maples. The red-silver hybrids are fast growing, as much as 3 to 5 feet per year. Despite the reputation of fast growing trees to be brittle (sycamore), the hybrid maples are quite durable in our high winds. The shape of them is more upright and oval, rather than the broader spreading sugar maple.
When you hybridize plants, you often get the benefits (or problems) of both species. With the selections made, you get the growth rate of the silver maple, combined with the fall color and durability of the red maple. And red maple trees do not put on the heavy seed production like the silver maple. So few if any seeds!
Cultivars of Red-Silver Hybrid Maples
Matador
This has become our best-selling maple tree. It has great qualities for the landscape. ‘Matador’ grows 3 to 5 feet per year, with excellent red fall foliage, and better branching than its predecessor, ‘Autumn Blaze’. ‘Matador’ grows 45 feet tall by 35 feet wide.
Autumn Fantasy
A wise choice if you are looking for more orange-red than true red fall foliage. ‘Autumn Fantasy’ grows 50 feet tall by 40 feet wide and is fast growing at 3 to 4 feet per year.
Introduced Maple Trees
Among the 150 plus maple tree species across the rest of the world, there are 7 species which we regularly plant here in the Central Great Plains. Some of them, like the Japanese maple, we are pushing to extremes with our weather. But others, like the Norway and Shantung maples, we find them loving the conditions. We try to put maples in places of grandeur, to us anyways. They become focal points, screens, shade, and much more to us. For the few of you like me, trees are our friends.
Japanese Maples
The Japanese maple tree, Acer palmatum, comes to us from Japan of course. There, it is planted everywhere, literally. Here, we have to shelter it under larger oaks and maples, behind windbreaks, and tuck it away from afternoon sun and winter winds. We love the burgundy foliage, especially the lacy ones. But it is the green cultivars which are best suited to our tough climate. However, there are enough great cultivars to satisfy the gardener.
Tamukeyama
Perhaps the hardest variety to pronounce for my colleagues, this semi-weeping, purple cutleaf maple tree does best in part sun, away from afternoon skies. The lacy foliage gives it a waterfall-effect, softening any corner of the house or stone in the garden. It grows 8 feet tall by 12 feet wide.
Bloodgood
This is an older variety, growing the largest of any of the purple-leafed cultivars. I have seen specimens in Topeka and Atchison, KS as big as 40 feet tall! It is more typically around 18 feet tall and 18 feet wide. The large purple-red leaves turn more red in autumn and it has well-statured look if pruned correctly.
Orangeola
I have this one in my garden. I have transplanted it twice, each time we moved to a new house. It is supposed to be uprightly weeping, with purple-red cut leaves, lacy and delicate. But at my house, I twisted the stem to bend over at 14 inches tall, letting it grow long, but not high. The delicate foliage turns orange-red in autumn. It grows 8 feet tall by 12 feet wide. But not at my house!
Miyabei Maple
Originally from Northern Japan, the Miyabei maple is a nice, rounded shade tree. It grows 60 feet tall and wide in the wild. The bark is one of its more interesting features, being corky and rough in nature. Fall color is yellow, making it the best yellow foliage maple in our collection.
Rugged Ridge
This species grows 55 feet tall by 40 feet wide, smaller than the species. However, the excellent fall color is hard to beat. I really love the bright, sunny yellows it produces each autumn. Its corky, ornamental bark does a better job of resisting winter sunscald and rabbit damage than many of the other maple trees.
Paperbark Maple
The paperbark maple has been in cultivation for a while, but only a few cultivars are available, selected from seed-grown trees. Of all the maples, the paperbark is my favorite introduced species. I have 3 of them in my small landscape. The coppery-rust bark is one of its best attraction, peeling like paper all season long. But it looks best in winter. The dark green summer leaves turn reddish orange in autumn. And the size makes them perfect for small spaces, growing only 15 to 30 feet tall by 18 feet wide.
Norway Maple Trees
The Norway maple is a large shade tree, spreading 60 to 100 feet tall and wide. In some parts of the United States it has become somewhat invasive, spreading out of landscapes and into native ecosystems. But here in the Central Great Plains, we do not have that issue. So far, I have yet to see a seed on any of the Norway maple trees in our region. The fall color is usually yellow. One of the attributes is we get a lot of our purple-leaved cultivars from them.
Crimson King
If you see dark purple leaved maple trees around the region, chances are very good that you are seeing a ‘Crimson King’ maple tree. These have been on display for decades, and many of the trees are reaching their mature ages and sizes. ‘Crimson King’ grows 40 feet tall by 30 feet wide, sometimes bigger. One of the things I dislike about this cultivar is that is usually has poor fall color, often just turning brown after the first freeze. Sometimes it turns yellow.
Hybrid Shantung-Norway Maple Trees
These are great trees for the landscape. The Shantung maple is best known for its small stature, growing 45 to 55 feet tall and wide. Its fall color can be red or purple, and by combining it with the yellow fall foliage of the Norway maple, you can get some amazing results. There is a series of hybrids available, all with the name Sunset at the end. Besides being tough and durable, they are fast growers.
Urban Sunset
This is the tree you plant now, instead of ‘Crimson King’. It is smaller yes, but it has reddish-purple leaves all summer that withstand full sun and wind. And then the leaves turn reddish orange in autumn. It only grows 35 to 40 feet tall and 25 feet wide, but it adds depth and color to a mostly green landscape in the summer months. Urban Sunset is also a great street tree for downtown, due mainly for its size. But it is also salt tolerant.
Pacific Sunset
This is my favorite so far of the Sunset series. It is more spreading than some of the other cultivars, and the fall foliage is bright and early. It colors up well to a rich, velvet red, after the glossy green leaves of summer. Pacific Sunset grows 35 feet tall by 30 feet wide.
Ruby Sunset
This will be the tree, at least in fall color, to replace the Autumn Purple Ash. Ruby Sunset is a small tree, yes, but it delivers a powerful punch of purple fall foliage. The leaves are shiny green in summer. It grows 25 feet tall and wide.
Conclusion
Maple trees are generally fast growing, great for the landscape of the Central Great Plains, and a favorite among fall foliage lovers. You can expect to find durable and hardy trees to withstand tough conditions here at Grimm’s Gardens. We search for and grow the best trees for this region.
Happy planting!