‘Kihachijo’ is a favorite of mine, with a bright green mane that turns sunset-colors of yellow, rose, red, and peach in fall. All colors, plus green and purple, may be present–even in the same leaf. In spring and summer, its foliage is green splashed with pink and white, and even the bark is variegated! It grows a thick, dense crop of foliage that makes an outstanding display of saltwater-taffy-yellow, orange, and pink in fall. ‘Orido nishiki’ is the best variegated type I have seen. ‘Seiryu’ is an upright version of ‘Viridis’ with the same sparkle. Red-leaved cultivars like ‘Crimson Queen’ may out-sell it by a landslide, but ‘Viridis’ has far more personality. dissectum ‘Viridis’, a weeper with finely cut green leaves, is a fireball of hot colors in fall. Can you imagine a Japanese maple forest?Īcer palmatum var. It’s hard to believe that this is what actually grows wild in Japan. Even a plain-Jane unnamed seedling Acer palmatumcan supply green, yellow, pink, purple, and orange-red color in fall. You don’t need to buy a rare selection to have awesome fall color. Green-leaved or variegated Japanese maples turn more brilliant, varied colors over a longer period of time. Briefly they glow crimson-red and then drop their leaves. The red varieties do turn a radiant color in fall, but they are quiet about it, slowly turning up the volume until one day they have noticeably brightened. I would pick a green-leaved Japanese maple over a red one any day for fall color. There are better types for fall color, though. Mostly we sold the popular red-foliaged types–either weeping, dissected-leaf selections like ‘Crimson Queen’, ‘Tamukeyama’, ‘Inabe shidare’, or ‘Red Dragon’, or upright, non-dissected types like ‘Bloodgood’ or ‘Emperor I’. Over the 16 years I worked at Ammon Nursery in Northern Kentucky, we grew more than 60 varieties of Japanese maples. When it comes to Japanese maples ( Acer palmatum) for fall color, there’s hardly a bad one in the bunch, but some are simply stunning, while others are take-your-breath-away gorgeous.
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