Autumn Blaze Red Maple Trees

• Variety: Autumn Blaze, a Freeman Maple for orange-red autumn colour
• Latin name: Acer × freemanii Autumn Blaze ('Jeffersred')
• Sold as: Bareroot standard, 6/8cm girth
• Mature size: More than 12m tall and more than 8m wide (RHS). We find 12 to 15m typical
• Habit: Fast-growing, with a dense oval head
• Autumn colour: Bright orange-red
• Best soil and site: Moist but well-drained, acid to neutral soil. Sun or partial shade
• Horses: Fallen leaves are poisonous to horses. Read the section below before you plant
• Hardiness: H6, hardy through the British winter
• RHS AGM: Yes (2012)
• Delivered: Bareroot, November to April. Collection from Castle Cary also available

Autumn Blaze is a fast-growing Freeman Maple with a dense oval head and deeply cut leaves that turn bright orange-red in autumn. It is a large tree, more than 12 metres tall in time, and it holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit. If you keep horses, read the section on horses first.

Autumn Blaze Red Maple Trees

This hybrid maple delivers a long-lasting shock of red and orange colour in autumn that punches through the landscape, and looks superb in a stand of mixed trees with yellows and oranges. Autumn blaze has a lovely upright, egg shaped canopy that naturally suits a medium-sized garden or woodland, and look good when planted along and avenue. It's a sterile tree that makes no seeds.
It can reach a height of about 20 metres in ideal conditions, but 12-15 is typical.

Browse our other Maple varieties, or all of our trees.

Delivery season: Maple trees are delivered bareroot from late autumn to early spring, November to April.
Choosing a size: Small trees are cheaper, easier to handle and more forgiving of less than ideal aftercare, so they're best for a big planting project. If instant impact is your priority, or if you are only buying a few plants for use in a place where it's convenient to water them well in their first year, then you may as well use bigger ones. Our standard trees are measured by the girth of the trunk in centimetres, one metre above the ground, not by their height.

Autumn Blaze and Horses

Wilted and fallen leaves of this tree are poisonous to horses, causing severe damage to the blood that is often fatal. The standing tree is not the problem: the danger is leaves dropping or blowing onto grazing in late summer and autumn, or a branch coming down in a storm. Freeman maples are a cross between red and silver maple, and recent veterinary research found their leaves more damaging to equine blood than red maple leaves, so treat them as the higher risk of the two.

Do not plant it where its leaves can reach horses, and keep fallen leaves out of paddocks and out of hay. Red, silver and sugar maples all carry this risk. If you keep horses, take current advice from your vet.

Growing Autumn Blaze Maples

Suitable for most soils except shallow chalk (unlike our native maple, which loves it). It's hardy, and drought tolerant when established. It'll have the best autumn colour in a sunny position (acidic soil also helps), but tolerates partial shade well.

Semi-regular pruning of mature trees will help to prevent branches falling off in storms. Strong branches have wide crotch angles, meaning that they're close to horizontal where they come out of the trunk, and weak branches have narrow crotch angles, so they're upright: removing the worst of the latter every few years will keep the tree in top shape. With young trees, all you need to do is to maintain a single leading stem and prevent a double leader from forming.

History & Trivia

It belongs to a group of hybrid maples that are very popular in America. They occur naturally wherever Red maples and Silver maples grow close to each other, but the parents of most cultivated varieties were crossed and selected in 1933 by Oliver M. Freeman (1891-1979) at the US National Arboretum in Washington, and in 1969 the hybrids were named in his honour by Albert Edward Murray.

Autumn Blaze was selected in the 1960's by nursery owner Glenn Jeffers in Ohio, and it has won at least two Tree of the Year awards there. Registration code Jeffersred.

Standard trees are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level: their trunk's waist measurement. Unlike sapling trees and hedge plants, standards aren't measured by their height, which will vary quite a bit both between and within species.
So, a 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8cm and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10cm around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
On average, standard trees are 2-3.5 metres tall when they arrive, but we cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.

Planting Companions

We grow three Freeman Maples: Autumn Blaze, Armstrong, which is the one for a narrow plot, and Celebration. All three carry the same warning for horses. For more quick trees, see our fastest growing trees. Dust bareroot roots with Rootgrow as you plant.

Why Ashridge?

Ashridge has sold trees since 1949 and is a Which? Best Plant Supplier 2025. Your Autumn Blaze comes as a bareroot tree, lifted to order while dormant and guaranteed for 12 months. Plant it between November and April, and it will establish readily.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big does Autumn Blaze grow?

The RHS puts it at more than 12 metres tall and more than 8 metres wide. We find 12 to 15 metres typical, and about 20 in ideal conditions. Give it the room of a large garden.

Will it grow on chalk?

Not on shallow chalk. The RHS lists it for acid to neutral soil that is moist but well-drained, and acid soil also gives you the best autumn colour.

When should you prune a Maple?

In late summer. Maples bleed sap if you cut them in spring. On a young tree, all you need to do is keep a single leading stem.

Is Autumn Blaze the tree's real name?

It is the trade name. The registered cultivar name is 'Jeffersred', and the RHS lists both.

When are the trees delivered?

Bareroot only, from November to April, while the trees are dormant. You can order at any time of year and your tree is lifted and sent once the season opens.