Japanese maples: 9 successful pairing ideas

In a zen garden!

Japanese maples have an incredible lightness and graphic quality. They soothe us with their soft, natural, balanced, and rounded forms. They spontaneously find their place in zen gardens, reminding us of their Asian origins. This is a minimalist garden that gives plenty of space to minerals, featuring large rocks, and at the centre, a gravel area, carefully raked to create waves. Plant your Japanese maple alongside bamboos, and a few bushes such as Cornus kousa or azaleas. You can add small plants, such as carex or ophiopogons, and moss. Install a few pines, like Pinus sylvestris, which you will prune into niwaki, in a cloud shape. Optionally, but sparingly, add a few decorative elements, such as lanterns, a bridge, or a torii gate. You will create an ideal garden for meditation and rejuvenation!

Phyllostachys aureosulcata ‘Aureocaulis’, Cornus kousa ‘Samaritan’ and Acer palmatum ‘Trompenburg’

With other ericaceous plants

As maples prefer rather acid soils, you can take advantage of this to create a heather soil bed by pairing them with other acidophilous plants. Add colour with the impressive spring flowering of azaleas! The Kalmia latifolia is also a remarkable bush with its delicate pink flowers. Enjoy the Japanese Andromeda (Pieris japonica), an evergreen bush that enlivens the garden with its bright red young shoots. You can also plant daphnes and camellias, which will bring colour and vitality to your bed in winter, when the maple is dormant.

Acer palmatum and Rhododendron (Photo Credit GAP – Dave Zubraski)

In a city garden

With its slow growth, the Japanese maple fits well into city gardens and small gardens! Create a contemporary and stylish garden with clean, understated shapes. You can plant it as a specimen in a patio, with gravel at its feet, to design a small minimalist garden. Or add a few grasses and ferns beside it! Enjoy the fragrant spring flowering of Pittosporum tobira, a bush with evergreen foliage that also adapts well to pot cultivation.

Feel free to plant your Japanese maple in a pot to place it in a courtyard. Surrounding it, plants with soft green foliage beautifully highlight its purplish leaves: Hosta, Hakonechloa macra, Rodgersia… A few flowers add a touch of softness among these leaves: Foxgloves, hardy geraniums, and Erysimum, delicately mingled with the lightness of grass leaves (Stipa).

Acer palmatum, Digitalis, Rodgersia, Hakonechloa macra, Hosta, Erysimum and Stipa (Copyright GAP Photos – Nicola Stocken)

With other decorative foliage

With its hues and the unique shape of its leaves, the Japanese maple pairs perfectly with other decorative leaves (more so than with flowering plants!). Don’t hesitate to plant ferns and small grasses at its base: Festuca glauca, Carex oshimensis… or the stunning Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’! The Japanese maple is perfect for complementing the graphic nature of fern fronds. We recommend Athyrium niponicum or Dryopteris erythrosora, whose fronds have lovely hues. The ferns will appreciate the shade it provides and will enjoy, like it, rather cool and acidic soil. You can add some hostas, ophiopogons, and heucheras.

Acer palmatum, Hosta ‘August Moon’, Heuchera ‘Pinot Noir’ and Blechnum (GAP Photos – Sarah Cuttle)

To play with colours

Pair your maple with decorative foliage to create a vibrant flowerbed! It is quite easy to match the foliage of maples with that of heucheras. They offer an impressive diversity! You can play with contrasts by pairing a dark-toned heuchera, such as Heuchera ‘Obsidian’, with maples in bright and fiery hues. Create a warm-toned flowerbed by choosing heucheras like Heuchera ‘Marmelade’, or by adding other plants that turn red in autumn. Combine the grass Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’ with maples that have tangy foliage, such as Acer palmatum ‘Sangokaku’. Also, take advantage of the exceptional foliage of Persicaria runcinata ‘Purple Fantasy’, whose graphic design and red – green – yellow tones will beautifully accompany the maples!

Acer palmatum ‘Sangokaku’, Heuchera ‘Marmelade’ and Persicaria ‘Purple Fantasy’

For a very graphic garden!

Obviously, the unique architecture and lightness of the foliage of maples give them a prominent place in a graphic and modern garden. They spontaneously create an atmosphere that is both minimalist and gentle. You can pair them with other plants that have structured and graphic forms, such as horsetails, ferns, or bamboos. Also consider grasses (Pennisetum, Festuca, Stipa…) to create an even lighter effect! Although foliage is preferred in this type of garden, do not hesitate to introduce some rather understated flowering plants: Allium ‘Mount Everest’, Allium ‘Red Mohican’, Actaea simplex ‘Brunette’, Angelica gigas…

Allium stipitatum ‘Mount Everest’, Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’, Pennisetum setaceum and Equisetum camtschatcense

For a stunning autumn atmosphere!

With its flamboyant foliage, the Japanese maple is truly perfect for enlivening the garden before the arrival of winter! You can take this opportunity to create a stunning autumn bed, featuring warm colours in shades of red, orange, purple, and pink. Enjoy the large pink-red inflorescences of Sedum spectabile ‘Septemberglut’, the spike flowering of Persicaria amplexicaulis, or the elegant purple flowers of Echinacea purpurea. At the back of the bed, install some tall grasses, such as Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foester’. Decorative wood dogwoods easily complement the colours of the Japanese maple. We recommend Cornus alba ‘Siberian Pearls’, which has beautiful red wood and purple foliage in autumn! You can also add some decorative berry bushes, such as Callicarpa bodinieri ‘Profusion’, with its violet berries, or symphorines.

Find more ideas here to create your autumn bed successfully!

Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘JS Delgado’, Acer palmatum ‘Orange Dream’, and Cornus alba ‘Siberian Pearls’

To play with contrasts

Japanese maples, with their flamboyant foliage, sometimes tangy, can brighten the darkest corners of your garden. They will bring them back to life, adding dynamism with their vibrant colours. Opt for example for the golden foliage of the Acer shirasawanum ‘Aureum’… And play with contrasts to highlight it by pairing it with plants that have dark foliage: Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’, Heuchera ‘Obsidian’, Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’, Phormium ‘Dark Delight’… Also discover the remarkable cut foliage of Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’!

Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’, Acer shirasawanum (photo André Abrahami) and Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’

... It is also perfect on its own!

Planting Japanese Maple in isolation will highlight its silhouette and colours! Our gaze then focuses on its colours and shapes, with no other plant to attract attention and steal the show. If you wish to prune it, shape it into a niwaki, or use any other pruning style that showcases its architecture. You might consider planting it in isolation on a large short grass meadow, in a very open and airy medium, or conversely, planting it in a large container, for example, at the centre of a patio… don’t hesitate to play with gravel and the textures of surrounding elements.

Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’