![]() ![]() When you are caring for sugar maple trees, irrigate them during dry weather. Expect your trees to grow from one foot to two feet (30.5-61 cm.) each year. Once you have finished planting sugar maple trees, they will grow at a slow to medium rate. The soil should be acidic to slightly alkaline. ![]() A sugar maple tree growing in deep, well-drained soil is the happiest. The tree will also grow in partial sun, with at least four hours of direct, unfiltered sun every day. ![]() If you are planting sugar maple trees, select a site in full sun for the best results. About that same time, the tree puts on a fantastic fall show, its leaves turning to bright shades of orange and red. They flower in April and May, producing the “helicopter” winged seeds that mature in autumn. The small, green flowers grow in groups hanging downward on slender stems. The leaves are dark green with five distinct lobes. The dense crown grows in an oval shape and offers ample shade in the summer. Well before colonists began sugar maple tree growing in this country, Native Americans tapped the trees for their sweet syrup and used the sugar made from it for bartering.īut sugar maples are lovely trees in and of themselves. Sugar maple tree facts provide lots of interesting information about this remarkable tree. Read on for more sugar maple tree facts and to learn how to grow a sugar maple tree. While grown commercially for its sweet syrup and value as lumber, sugar maple also makes an attractive addition to your backyard. Four states have picked this tree as their state tree – New York, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Vermont – and it is also the national tree of Canada. They can look a bit sparsely branched in their winter form, but fill out very nicely in full leaf, in the summer.Īlthough I am recognizing these two cultivars for their limited width and height, there are other larger full crowned sugar maple cultivars that may be acceptable for larger urban planting strips, so do not limit your consideration to these narrow forms of sugar maples for urban trees if you have the room.If you are thinking of planting sugar maple trees, you probably already know that sugar maples are among the best-loved trees on the continent. So be wary of that challenge during selection, acceptance and maintenance. Maintaining a central leader is a challenge with these cultivars and their branch structure does not appear to be as predictable or agreeable as the general species. I cannot say they are drought tolerant but I suspect this has to do more with the soils they are growing in, the competition around them and according to literature, the progeny of the parent tree.įrom our experience, they are relatively tolerant of transplanting but rooting does not appear to be quite as prolific at the red maple family. Information indicates they like to be in moist soils but my own experience with sugar maples is they are not overly tolerant of wet soils. It appears they have shallow wide spreading roots in wet or limited depth soils, but develop much deeper and broader spreading roots in well drained soils. Their leaves drop relatively early, which some people like. They appear to be a little darker green in the summer than the species, finishing the season with the typical outstanding red tipped lobes on golden yellow leaves in the fall. The leaves on both of the cultivars are the well-known and generally recognized maple leaf shape (as seen on the Canadian flag). Typical of the sugar maple species, their bark is light brown and slightly rough in youth. Both trees are perfect sizes for most street tree locations. Apollo® will be a little taller at 30 feet tall and maybe narrower at about 10 feet wide. Sugar Cone maple is said to have a mature height of 25 feet and spread of about 13 feet. They are both narrow, miniature versions of the species. However, two sugar maple selections that are now available to the landscape industry, are a better fit in our more confined urban spaces Acer saccharum ‘Sugar Cone’ and Apollo® sugar maple, Acer saccharum ‘Barrett Cole’. But as a street tree, they are generally too large. Given their size, they are well suited for native forests as well as parks and boulevards. I recall them being tolerant of the understory shade but eventually becoming the dominant tree with huge massive limbs. Growing up in the Midwest, I found the sugar maple, Acer saccharum, to be one of my favorite native trees. Acer saccharum ‘Sugar Cone’ and ‘Barrett Cole’ ![]()
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