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FAQs
With our varied range of elegant maples, UK gardeners have a wide choice of responsibly grown maple trees to choose from.
Do Maple Trees Flower?
Yes, maple trees do produce flowers and also winged seeds called samsaras. Most maple tree flowers are inconspicuous and produce small blooms best observed up close. Depending on the species, flower colours vary from orange, red, yellow and green and usually bloom just after the leaves appear.
Maple trees are very easy to grow in practically any fairly sheltered location that is not prone to waterlogging, but will still thrive next to water.
The ideal soil is rich and moist. On dry, poor soil, add plenty of organic matter and mulch yearly.
They are reasonably shade-tolerant, so partial shade is fine, and some species will do well in close to full shade. However, as with so many trees, if the variety has red or purple leaves, it will colour up best in the sun.
Japanese maples should always be planted in sheltered locations because too much wind ruins the appearance of their foliage.
The toughest, most wind-resistant varieties are our native field Maples, Acer campestre (their saplings are used in mixed country hedging), which includes the more compact cultivars Streetwise, Elsrijk and the red-purple leaved Royal Ruby.
You can plant Pot Grown Maple trees at any time of year, and Bareroot trees during winter, except when the soil is frozen.
The best time to plant Maple trees is from late Autumn to early Spring (November to March), using bareroot stock, which is cheaper, easier to carry and plant, and tends to establish even better than their pot grown equivalents.
Watch our Tree Planting Video for instructions.
Although optional, we strongly recommend using Rootgrow.
Aftercare:
Remember: the two biggest killers of recently transplanted trees are underwatering, and being choked by weeds and grass.
- Regular, thorough watering is vital during dry weather in their first spring and summer, and highly recommended the following summer, especially if there is a heat wave.
- Either remove weeds and grass by hand periodically, or use some form of mulch to suppress them.
Tree Planting Accessories
Standards that are 6/8cm in girth and upwards are quite big trees, so they need a tree planting stake and a tree tie (with a buffer between the tree and the stake) during their first couple of years.
A mulch mat is will suppress weeds & grass, and preserve moisture: remember that dry soil and competition with weeds are the two biggest killers of new trees.
Even with a mat, you should remove anything that manages to grow up between the mat and the trunk in late spring and summer.
You can buy those items separately, or save money with our Tree Planting Pack.
You definitely need a tree guard if there are deer or rabbits about.
In urban areas with no wild animals, tree guards are great for protecting against mowers and strimmers.
For that purpose, you can cut one tree guard into several pieces about 20-25cm long, to act as skirting around the base of the tree.
Mycorrhizal Fungi
We cannot recommend using Rootgrow fungi enough: it makes a huge difference, especially with larger trees, which are scrambling to regrow the root systems that they lost when we dug them up, in order to support their now top-heavy growth above ground.
Mycorrhizal fungi assist the roots in accessing soil nutrients and water, and protect the roots from soil critters.
In return, the tree shares sugar with them, and the result can be over 50% more growth above ground!
Japanese maples are famously slow-growing trees, making them simply outstanding garden trees that can maintain their shape and structure for many years without pruning.
Other maples, especially Sycamores (Acer pseudoplatanus) and the silver maple (Acer saccharinum) grow very quickly.
They can self-seed fairly readily from their winged "helicopter" fruit, which spin gently to the floor, evoking playful British autumns.