How to: grow an ornamental maple
Have you ever admired those red and fuchsia, sometimes purple or orange, maple trees that adorn so many ornamental gardens? Would you like one of your own for a yard or container garden, but without a $100 outlay?
Our ornamental maple is just three years old, about 15" tall, and a veritable charmer in the garden, well on her way to being a crown jewel of a tree with gently weeping red leaves and diminutive stature. It's hard to believe it started life as a cast-off seed found in a shopping mall parking lot.
We now love this hand-raised tree so much, that we keep a lookout for other neighborhood maples and more seeds that we can start for friends. In areas where there are groves of ornamental maples, you are more likely to get a seedling that is true to its parent. Check out shopping mall parkings lots, look underneath ornamental maples and see if you can find a baby tree that has gotten a head start on growing. These definitely need rescuing before they are smothered by landscaping armies who cover them in tons of mulch.
Spring is a great time to look for maple seeds, but some may not develop until Autumn. You'll recognize them as the seeds that "helicopter" their way through the sky. They have a single wing which will twirl the seed on its way down from a branch in search of a soft place to land.
Maples are easy to grow. Admittedly, it will take years to raise one large enough to stop traffic, but I guarantee they will charm you at any size, from baby-tree to adulthood. They are also wonderful gifts for gardening friends or to sell at fund raisers.
You can grown them in containers, or even make them into bonsai. Each spring they will sprout wonderful, colorful, decorative leaves.
Collect dry seeds and start them nursery pots or recycled containers using potting soil. Don't plant them very deep or water them heavily. If you collect the seeds in the fall, let them dry out for 2 months, then give them a cold treatment (about 70 days) in the refrigerator to condition them before planting in the Spring.
Plant them out when they are at least seven inches tall, and give them some protection like a wire cage, until they are larger and established, especially if there is a lot of foot (or paw) traffic in your garden.
