Very few landscape plants have achieved the popularity and success demonstrated by Autumn Blaze Maple over the last twenty years.  Autumn Blaze Maple has attracted millions of buyers with its rapid growth, drought tolerance once established, versatility on many soil types, pleasing shape and stunning red/orange fall color.

For property owners who want shade sooner rather than later, Autumn Blaze Maple can be an excellent choice.  Even if you go low budget and plant an Autumn Blaze Maple that is only 8 feet tall and one inch trunk diameter from a #7 or #10 nursery pot, most of the time the tree will reach a size of 30 to 35 feet tall and 10 inch diameter in an average of only ten years.  If you start with a 3”-4” diameter Autumn Blaze Maple that is about twenty feet tall at planting time, you can have a tree 45 feet tall in ten years.  This is pretty significant shade in a relatively short time.

Autumn Blaze Maple is a tree that prospers when we administer tough love for trees.  Simply put, the very best care of Autumn Blaze Maple is to prune it early, often and aggressively the first ten years after planting.  Aggressive pruning every other year to remove weakly attached branches that come out of the trunk at very steep upward angles will leave you with a gorgeous and strong shade tree that can withstand violent thunderstorms and winter ice storms.  After being pruned aggressively 4 or 5 times early in life you will have an Autumn Blaze Maple with lower angled branches that are very strongly attached to the trunk and a lovely tree that puts on an annual fall color show of blazing red that is hard to beat.

Mature size is about 60 feet tall x 45 feet wide, so allow plenty of space for growth when you pick the planting location for your Autumn Blaze Maple.