The Japanese maple: A sweet treat for any yard

Delicate in appearance and artistic in habit, Japanese maples offer a range of attractive features for the landscape. Most have smooth, grayish brown bark and branches that naturally form graceful layers or interesting, contorted shapes.

• Some grow into fluffy, billowing mounds, while others shoot asymmetrically into the air.
• The leaves are beautifully shaped and may be green, bronze, red, purple or bicoloured.
• In fall, the foliage is burnished in gold, russet, orange and crimson.

Japanese maples quickly become focal points in the landscape and are often the tree of choice for small yards because they seldom grow taller than 7.5 metres (25 feet).

• They do best when they have a few hours of shade daily, so feel free to plant them at an entryway or near the house foundation.
• Their well-behaved roots make them suitable for including in flower beds or underplanting with bulbs, groundcovers or shallow-rooted annuals.
• Dwarf cultivars, which grow to 1.8 metres (six feet), can edge patios and walkways but give the trees room to spread as wide as their mature height.
• The green-leaf types are easy to blend with other plants; those with coloured leaves make striking specimens.

The best way to choose a Japanese maple is to visit a nursery and select a plant personally.

Be on the lookout:

1. Check plant tags for mature size and wait until the trees leaf out so that you can see the foliage shape or colour before buying.
2. There are two main leaf forms: divided and lobed.
3. Varieties labeled cut-leaf or thread-leaf maple (Acer palmatum var. dissectum) have very lacy, finely divided leaves and gracefully drooping branches.
4. While some have green leaves that turn yellow or red in autumn, 'Ornatum' is one of several Japanese maples with bronze-red foliage that turns crimson in fall.
5. Among trees whose leaves have five or seven lobes, a favourite is the red-leaved 'Atropurpureum', which retains its wine colour during most of the growing season.
6. 'Bloodgood' is reddish purple in summer, then turns bright red in fall.
7. Several unusual cultivars boast variegated leaves. 'Butterfly' has green leaves rimmed in pink and cream, while 'Shigitatsu Sawa' has yellow-green leaves veined in dark green. 'Sangokaku' has coral young branches, which glow against its yellow and orange fall foliage.

• Plant Japanese maples in spring except in warm climates, where fall planting gives them a head start before the following summer's heat.
• These trees have shallow roots that benefit from good soil, so enrich a very broad planting hole with organic matter before setting in the tree.
• Keep the soil moist the first year and fertilize young trees each spring with an organic or controlled-release, balanced fertilizer according to package directions.
• An eight-centimetre-layer (three-inch-layer) of organic mulch over the root zone year-round helps retain moisture and discourage weeds.

Aside from the risk of drought stress, this tree is virtually trouble-free.

ATTRIBUTES Deciduous trees with graceful form and leaves; for specimens, beds

SEASON OF INTEREST Year-round

FAVOURITES' Ornatum', 'Bloodgood', 'Atropurpureum', 'Sangokaku', 'Butterfly'

QUIRKS Branches on some varieties form attractive contorted shapes

GOOD NEIGHBOURS Birches and other, taller trees; bulbs; perennials; ground covers

WHERE IT GROWS BEST Organically rich soil in partial shade

LONGEVITY Lives many decades

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS Rare; can suffer in prolonged droughts

SOURCE Nursery plants

DIMENSIONS 1.8 to 7.5 metres (six to 25 feet) tall and equally wide

Plant and enjoy the year-round colour of this beautiful tree.