Acer palmatum Little Red - Japanese Maple

The Acer palmatum 'Little Red' is a small Japanese maple tree whose superb red foliage evokes the flamboyant variety 'Bloodgood' in a more compact size and even brighter colour. It forms a compact, narrow small tree with palmate leaves with 5 deep lobes, bright red in spring, dark green tinged with burgundy in summer, turning fiery red in autumn. The new summer shoots are bright red above the darker foliage. Plant it in the ground or in a pot, in partial shade or in non-burning sun during the hottest hours, sheltered from strong winds, in humus-bearing, well-drained, light soil.

The Acer palmatum is native to eastern China, Korea, and Japan. Like all maples, it belongs to the family of cereous. The cultivar 'Little Red' is a selection from the American nursery of Crispin Silva. It is distinguished by a rather narrow habit and the colour evolving throughout the season in red tones of its cut foliage. It is a small deciduous, hardy tree, with rather slow growth. It supports a crown that is upright to slightly spreading. Ultimately, it will reach approximately 1.80 m in height depending on the growing conditions. Its foliage consists of palmate leaves, measuring 5 to 8 cm in length, deeply cut into 5 full and narrow lobes. Their colour changes from bright red in spring to dark carmine green in summer to finally scarlet in autumn before falling. The reddish flowers clustered in small bunches in April are insignificant, but the fruits with curved red wings, 3 cm long, are interesting from September onwards. 

The Acer palmatum 'Little Red' is ideal as a stand-alone specimen on a lawn or in heather soil beds alongside azaleas, pieris, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, and heathers. It can also be grown in a beautiful pot on a terrace or as a bonsai in a flat dish. Despite its delicate appearance, this small tree is hardy and prefers a light, well-drained soil, not too poor, slightly acidic to slightly chalky, and occasional watering in dry weather. Diseases, such as Verticillium, are more likely to appear in constantly wet soils rather than intermittently dry ones.