Field Maple, Large Trees

Acer campestre: Bareroot Common Maple Trees in Standard Sizes

The Common Field Maple is a round headed native tree with twiggy branches, useful for tall screening or as part of a windbreak. The young wood has distinctive corky ridges running along its length, providing grooves for insects and spiders to lay their eggs. In spring, the bright green leaves appear at about the same time as the small, insignificant flowers, which are popular with bees. The mature leaves are deep green and then turn a glorious, mellow orange-yellow in autumn. The seeds are winged "helicopters", called samara, which mature from greed to a maroon-ish red.

Field Maple can reach a height of about 15-25 metres. It is rare for them to grow to over 20 metres, but it is possible on fertile, sunny, sheltered sites.
Standard trees are the largest size that we deliver; you can also buy Field Maple hedge plants.

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 are 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 is 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: 15-25m
• Soil: Any well drained
• RHS Award of Garden Merit
• RHS Plants for Pollinators
• Bareroot delivery only: November-March

Growing Field Maples

This hardy tree will grow almost anywhere, except on very acidic or really dry soil. Suitable for exposed locations except on the coast. It thrives on chalk and does not mind winter waterlogging.
It tolerates urban pollution well, and dappled shade cast by taller trees.

Avoid pruning in late winter / early Spring, because it will bleed sap.

Did You Know?

It is a great bonsai tree. The wood polishes very well and used for small, high quality items like musical instrument parts. It is good firewood.

The tallest on record in the UK was 25 metres tall in 2007, located at Kinnettles Castle in Angus. The widest on record may be a cheat, and actually be several trees fused together; either way, it is a whopping 16 metres around, and lurks in Hatfield Forest, Essex, which is the last remaining small, medieval royal hunting forest, pretty much untouched since the end of the 11th century.

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.

Notes on planting Field Maple trees:
Acer campestre will grow in pretty much any soil apart from very acidic, peaty earth. It likes thrives on chalk and limestone. It tolerates sites with poor drainage, although it won't grow in a swamp. It will grow well in partial shade or a full day of dappled shade cast by a larger tree growing over it.
Field Maple is fine to grow in the inner city. It is suitable for exposed and very cold sites, but it won't grow on the coast.

Prepare your site before planting:
It is good to dig over the site where you plant a tree several months in advance. Kill the weeds first: for tough weeds like nettles, brambles and ground elder, you will usually need a weed-killer to get rid of them. When you dig the soil over, remove stones and other rubbish and mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 2 spades.

Watch our video on how to plant a tree for full instructions.
Remember to water establishing trees during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Tree Planting accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Neudorff WeedFree Plus.
You can buy a tree planting pack with a wooden stake & rubber tie to support the tree and a mulch mat with pegs to protect the soil around the base of your tree from weeds and drying out.
We suggest that you use mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of all newly planted large trees: if your soil quality is poor, we strongly recommend it.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.