Acer palmatum Little Princess - Japanese Maple

Acer palmatum 'Little Princess' is a variety of Japanese maple particularly appreciated for its compact ball-shaped habit and its decorative deciduous foliage from spring to autumn. Its small palmate leaves emerge in tender green with red tips and margins before turning dark green and tinted with orange-red and yellow in autumn, offering a changing and colourful spectacle. This vigorous and erect dwarf tree reaches 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in all directions and is perfectly suited for small gardens. It can be easily grown in a pot. Provide it with a bright to partially shaded exposure in non-calcareous, moist, rich and light soil.

Native to eastern China, Korea and Japan, Acer palmatum is the origin of a multitude of horticultural varieties that compete in beauty. The Japanese maple belongs, like all maples, to the Sapindaceae (Aceraceae) family. It is relatively hardy, but fears dry and cold winds, scorching exposures and dry and calcareous soils. The cultivar 'Little Princess' shows a rather slow growth like most Japanese maples. Its habit is erect, bushy and compact. It will reach, depending on the growing conditions, on average 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in all directions. Similar to the variety 'Kiyo Hume', in spring, this small tree develops young tender green leaves with red margins. They unfold into finely cut palmate leaves with 5 well-separated, nicely rounded, dentate lobes. In summer, the lamina darkens to dark green. Just before falling, the leaves turn a magnificent orange-red and then yellow. The discreet flowering takes place in May-June. The flowers, grouped in small clusters, sometimes produce some fruits with recurved wings, called samaras, 3 cm (1.2 in) long.

Acer palmatum 'Little Princess', with the originality and natural charm of its small foliage with evolving colours, stands out from afar, in the garden or when planted in a pot on a terrace. Extremely decorative from spring to autumn, it deserves a special place. The Japanese maple is not strictly speaking an ericaceous plant, but it prefers soils rich in humus that remain moist. Chinese azaleas, pieris, hydrangeas, wild camellias, ferns and heathers will be its most beautiful companions. It can form a magnificent bonsai to be grown in a flat dish. Combine several varieties of Japanese maples to vary the colours and structures of the foliage; the effect is always dazzling at the end of the season. Its tender green leaves with red nuances blend beautifully with purple-leaved shrubs such as 'Miss Saori' hydrangea, for example.