Norway Maple Trees

Acer platanoides: Bareroot Norway Maple Trees in Standard Sizes

The Norway Maple, Acer platanoides, is a large, upright tree with good autumn colour that is vase shaped when young, spreading into a round crown as it ages. Its small, yellow green flowers appear slightly before the leaves break in spring and attract bees. The Autumn colour is variable from impressive yellow to quite muted marmalade orange.

They can reach a height of about 25 metres, potentially more in a wood.

We only sell this tree as a standard, not as younger saplings. You can also buy two ornamental varieties: Drummondii and Crimson Sentry.

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

Delivery season: Maple trees are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-March inclusive.
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. All our bareroot trees are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Features

• Height: 20-30m
• Soil: Any with decent drainage, except very poor and dry
• Yellow Autumn colour
• RHS Plants for Pollinators
• Bareroot delivery only: November-March

Growing Norway Maples

This hardy and unfussy tree will grow in almost any soil apart from peat or shallow chalk, and it won't thrive on very poor, dry soil. It loves clay and although it won't grow in wet soil, it doesn't mind a bit of winter waterlogging or flooding. It's quite shade-tolerant and totally pollution resistant.
It's suitable for very exposed locations, but not on the coast.

Other plants generally don't grow under it due to the shade it casts and the dense root system.

History & Trivia

This tree has been naturalised in Britain for a very long time. Its native range is all over Europe. The first written account of it here is from 1683, when young trees raised in Holyrood Palace were transplanted to a garden in Edinburgh by George Sutherland.

You could tap mature trees for their sap in early Spring (a sunny day after frost is best) as you would a sugar maple, but it is much less sweet.
The hard wood has a fine grain but is not strong enough for structural uses; it is mainly used for cabinets and other indoor furniture.

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.