Maple Acer x. freemanii Autumn blaze

Autumn Blaze is a cross between red maple and silver maple, and the autumn is why it gets planted. The whole canopy turns together, deep orange through to scarlet, and holds for weeks rather than colouring in patches the way seedling grown maples do. The crown builds into a broad upright oval with a clear outline, and the leaves are more deeply cut than a typical red maple, with a paler underside from the silver maple side. It is a shade and avenue tree for cool districts and larger blocks.

Cool districts, deep soil and formative pruning

Colour is far more reliable in cooler districts such as the Southern Highlands, the Adelaide Hills, inland Victoria and the tablelands than it is in humid coastal gardens, where the display runs shorter and duller. Part shade through full sun both work, and growth here is steady rather than rapid. It is fully deciduous and handles cold winters without trouble, so the limits are heat, drought and shallow ground rather than frost. It wants deep soil that does not go bone dry through summer, on the slightly acidic side, and it sulks on shallow limestone country. The failure mode is structural and it starts young. The silver maple parent shows in the branching, because young trees throw narrow upright forks with tight included unions, and left alone the tree can split in a storm many years later, usually over a driveway. Formative pruning in the first few seasons to leave one clear central leader is the fix. Surface rooting is the other habit to plan around, so keep it out of narrow strips beside paving and away from drainage lines.

Autumn Blaze against the red maple selections

All three large maples here give reliable autumn colour, and the difference is structure and soil. Redpointe is the better behaved tree in the ground, with a strong central leader, wide angled branches and much greater tolerance of higher pH soils, so it needs less corrective pruning as a young street tree. Fairview Flame is narrower and more upright, which is what you want in a tight front garden or a driveway line. Autumn Blaze earns its place on display, with canopy colour that turns more evenly and holds longer than either, on a site with room and an owner willing to prune it properly while it is young. All three want deep soil that stays moist through summer, so none of them is a low water tree. It sits with our other advanced trees.

Early structural pruning and feeding

Prune in late autumn or winter while the tree is dormant, and avoid late winter and early spring when the sap runs and cuts bleed. For the first three or four seasons the job is structural, so shorten or remove any competing leader, cut out tight narrow forks while they are still small wood, and space the scaffold branches around the trunk. After that it needs little beyond deadwood removal and clearance pruning. Feed in early spring with a complete slow release fertiliser while the tree is establishing, water deeply through the first summers, and mulch a wide ring rather than mowing right to the trunk.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 19 sizes, from 140mm up to Bare root, priced from $21.95 to $5389.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to growing maples in Australian gardens.