Japanese Maple Selections for Mid-South

Photo: 'Sango Kaku' coral bark maple in November

Japanese maple (A. palmatum) offers a vast array of shrub and tree forms of varying heights and leaf shapes. Spring and summer leaves vary from gold, to dark green, to deep red and some color variegation and either cutleaf or dissected forms.

The dissected leaf forms of A. palmatum prefer morning sunlight and protection from winter wind and summer heat. Several hundred cultivars are available through local and mail order sources. Some popular cultivars grwon in the Southern Appalachian region (zones 6 & 7) are:
· ‘Tamuke yama’, ’Inaba Shidare’ (Red Select), and ‘Crimson Queen’ are weeping, red cutleaf forms
· ‘Viridis’- weeping green cutleaf to 20-25 feet
· ‘Seiryu’ - upright green cutleaf to 15 feet
· ‘Bloodgood’ - red palmate leaf to 20-25 feet
· ‘Heffner’s Red Select’ retain its red summer leaf color longer the popular ‘Bloodgood’
· ‘Butterflies’ - white variegated leaf to 12-14 feet
· ‘Sango Kaku' and 'Beni Kawa' – the "coral bark maples" with red twig and trunk bark from mid- fall thru late winter.

Coral Bark Maple Blazes in the Winter Landscape

Sango kaku Japanese maple (Acer palmatum 'Sango kaku') has light green summer foliage on a fairly upright branches. In the fall, foliage turns yellow-gold with some light tints of red, otherwise a very ordinary tree. It's in the fall and winter seasons when this 20-25 foot ornate maple excels. The green branches and twigs turn bright coral red, aglow in the winter sun. Sango kaku makes a beautiful addition to any landscape in USDA zones 6-7.

Sango kaku prefers 1/2 day of sun, preferably in the morning and early afternoon hours. New spring growth is thin and rank, the tree needing pruning annually to maintain a good tree form. A colder than normal winter often results in twig dieback, requiring minor cleanup pruning cuts in the spring.

'Beni kawa' is another Japanese maple with exquisite salmon colored bark beginning in late fall-winter. It appears to possess better cold and heat tolerance. Tree height is alot smaller, perhaps only 10-12 feet tall at maturity. Growth on Beni kawa is not as spindly and less prone to winter twig dieback. Beni kawa leafs out 2 weeks later than Sango kaku, avoiding spring freeze injury.