Gardening with Gael - Maple provides vibrant autumn colour

A recent trip to the US and Canada has deepened my interest and passion for deciduous trees. The shade they provide in the summer and the light they provide in the winter allows them to be planted closer to dwellings and buildings than evergreen trees. Just down the road a stand of large evergreen trees have just been removed to allow light into a site ready for a new house. The area looks bare without them. Deciduous trees could have remained. I love the way the foliage softens the architectural lines. 

I am even more delighted with the row of liquidambers up at the block. At the time of planting Box suggested maples. I was sceptical. I have tried small maples here at the cottages several times but they have not done well at all. In fact they all died. Their root system is much shallower than the liquidambers and I didn’t want them competing with the rhododendrons. Reluctantly I agreed to three. They have flourished. Their autumn colour is more intense than the liquidamber, the easterly winds don’t seem to have bothered them and I think Box has only watered them during one drought. They are planted at the end of the row away from the rhododendrons. One week home and I was ringing around the local nurseries looking for more and trudging about the Block garden selecting suitable spots. 

The range of maples is huge. Palmers Garden Guide cites a genus of about 150 species. This year I am content with the large varieties which will grow up to 12 metres. I have ordered – after consulting with My Friend Jan who has a glorious ‘maple walk’ at her home in Auckland – a Sugar Maple [Acer saccharum], Coral Bark, and Red Emperor, all recommended for their wonderful autumn colour. I may even get to tap some maple sugar from a sugar maple tree. The Acer pseudoplatanus or sycamore maples are ones to avoid. They have been identified as invasive in Australia and New Zealand.

“What conditions do they like?” asked my friend Ann who is staying at present and with whom I have discussed this article. “I’ll tell you,” I said “when I have finished the article.” 

Palmer’s Garden Guide recommends an average, well-drained lime-free soil where the roots can remain cool and moist in the summer. Maples do not like wet feet and can be susceptible to phytophthera, a fact that is good to know. The existing maples are in just the soil I have described but a couple of the new positions may be a bit wet. At least this is the right time of the year to test that. It couldn’t be more boggy than it is now. They will survive full sun (mine are) but they also like a bit of shade. That answers the questions for next year. I would love some smaller weeping varieties on a bank below one of the dams. The totaras nearby partially shade the area which will be perfect.

I am fortunate indeed to have the room to indulge my fantasies. There are still some areas not pegged by Box for grapes. Somehow small weeping maples and irises seem like a great combination. I have worked out exactly the spot.