How to Grow and Care for Freeman Maple

Acer x freemanii

Pink maples are beautiful, with their brightly coloured leaves and towering development. Silver maples are interesting as a result of they develop quick and vigorously.

The Freeman or Freeman’s maple, Acer x freemanii, is a hybrid cross between silver and crimson maples that mixes the most effective of each, which is why it’s an absolute favourite of arborists and growers alike.

You’ll discover it alongside streets, in city areas, parking zone islands, and parks everywhere.

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Take into account me a member of the Freeman maple fan membership. I’m guessing, because you’re right here, you’re additionally on this implausible tree.

In that case, this information goes that can assist you turn out to be accustomed to the tree and learn how to take care of it, from planting to keeping off pests, and extra.

Right here’s what I’ll cowl:

Earlier than we dive into caring for this plant, let’s check out its origin story.

Cultivation and Historical past

The unique Freeman maple was created when Oliver Myles Freeman hybridized a crimson maple, A. rubrum, and a silver maple, A. saccharinum, in 1933.

Freeman was a botanist on the Nationwide Arboretum who bred native bushes to create thrilling new crosses.

Not solely did he create the Freeman maple, however he additionally bred a southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) and a sweetbay magnolia (M. virginiana) cross to create the ‘Freeman’ hybrid, which continues to be in style immediately.

Freeman’s maple combines the most effective of each mum or dad species, with sturdy department attachment and delightful foliage within the fall because of the crimson maple, and the quick, vigorous development of the silver maple.

Relying on the cultivar, they will develop 4 instances sooner than the crimson maple.

Silver maples sometimes don’t thrive in city situations as a result of they’re delicate to air pollution, however crimson maples are completely high quality, and the Freeman’s sort takes on the crimson maple’s adaptability.

There are literally pure crosses of the silver and crimson maple out within the wild, since Acer bushes hybridize simply, however Freeman maples have been rigorously cultivated to mix all the most effective qualities of the 2 species.

The unique Freeman maple grows between 40 to 60 toes tall and about half as extensive, although most of the trendy cultivars keep a lot smaller.

They often have an upright, pyramidal kind, however cultivars can differ, with some having rounder or extra slim varieties. On the middle is a powerful, straight trunk with grey, fissured bark.

The leaves develop reverse one another and every has a distinctly toothed margin and 5 deep lobes.

I really like watching them transfer within the breeze as a result of the topsides are medium inexperienced, whereas the undersides have a silvery hue. It provides a kaleidoscope-like impact when the leaves are shifting. Within the fall, the leaves turn out to be shiny orange or crimson with paler undersides.

Within the spring, crimson clusters of flowers kind on the ends of the branches. These inconspicuous flowers later grow to be seed pods often called samaras.

Samaras are the two-winged, helicopter-like pods that twirl to the bottom within the spring and summer season.

The unique Freeman maple was a male, so it didn’t kind samaras, however these bushes can even have feminine elements even when they’re listed as male.

Freeman Maple Propagation

As hybrids, you possibly can’t begin these bushes from seed and anticipate to develop an actual reproduction of the mum or dad plant. That leaves you with just a few different good choices.

You may propagate through stem cuttings, air layering, grafting, or you should purchase a potted specimen to transplant.

Grafting includes taking a department from the tree and attaching it to a rootstock to develop a plant that mixes the traits of each mother and father.

Air layering requires eradicating the bark to encourage the tree to develop roots, and taking stem cuttings is the method of eradicating a department and planting it in a rising medium.

As soon as it varieties roots within the medium, you possibly can transplant it out into the backyard.

Our information to rising maples explains all the small print about every completely different propagation methodology.

Transplanting

The simplest strategy to get began is to buy a sapling from a backyard middle or nursery.

To do that, dig a gap about two to a few instances the width of the container the plant is at the moment rising in.

You don’t have to dig any deeper than the container except you actually wish to. Gently take away the plant by grabbing it on the base, near the soil, and wiggling it out of the pot.

If it actually resists, you may wish to use a knife or scissors to chop the container reasonably than risking injury to the roots. As soon as it’s free, loosen up the roots if they’re tightly certain collectively.

Place the plant within the gap on the similar depth it was within the pot – not deeper – and attempt to information the roots out and away from the trunk.

Backfill the outlet with the eliminated soil. Water properly and add extra soil if it settles.

Find out how to Develop Freeman Maples

As is the case with most maples, well-draining soil is important. Your tree won’t thrive if it’s in waterlogged soil. That stated, it could possibly tolerate heavy clay and really occasional flooding.

Along with being well-draining, ideally the soil must be organically-rich and barely acidic to impartial, with a pH between 5.5 and seven.5.

Any spot with full solar or partial shade will work, although the tree will most likely develop so tall that it’ll finally surpass close by bushes.

Plant younger bushes in a location that receives at the very least 4 hours of direct solar per day. Six or extra is good.

As soon as established, Freeman maples are drought tolerant, however they want common moisture for the primary yr or two. Add water when the highest inch or two of soil dries out. The soil beneath ought to really feel like a well-wrung-out sponge.

After that, you possibly can depend on nature to supply the moisture except you could have a protracted, scorching, dry stretch.

Earlier than you feed your plant, check your soil. These bushes don’t want a number of fertilization, so your soil is likely to be completely enough.

You don’t have to prune these bushes as they preserve a beautiful form with out pruning.

Nevertheless, in case you see any damaged, diseased, closely pest-infested, or deformed branches, take them out.

It is best to use the three-cut pruning methodology if it is advisable to take away massive branches.

This includes making a reduce on the underside of the limb about 9 inches from the trunk. Make the straight via a couple of third of the department.

This reduce prevents injury equivalent to bark tearing or ripping because the department falls away from the tree.

Subsequent, just a few inches nearer to the trunk, noticed via the department from the highest downwards, and also you’ll be left with a stump.

Discover the department collar, which is a swollen space hooked up to the trunk from which the department emerges.

Trim the stump on the department collar, not slicing via it, however as shut as you possibly can whereas leaving the collar intact.

Smaller branches could be snipped off utilizing pruners.

Be taught all about pruning maples in our information.

Cultivars to Choose

There are many cultivars of the Freeman maple, every with distinctive traits.

Some develop smaller than the principle hybrid, others have brighter coloration. Here’s a choice of some of my favorites:

Armstrong

For those who love the concept of the Freeman’s maple however it doesn’t slot in your area, ‘Armstrong’ is likely to be simply what you want.

It’s narrower than the unique, rising to fifteen toes extensive whereas nonetheless reaching as much as 70 toes tall. The leaves look just like these of the silver maple, with deep inexperienced on prime and silvery undersides.

‘Armstrong’ is good for parking strips and lining streets, the place drivers and pedestrians can benefit from the orange-red foliage within the fall.

Talking of the autumn show, the trade-off with this cultivar is that although you could have a pleasant columnar form, the autumn show isn’t as sensible as a few of the others on this listing.

Don’t get me fallacious, it’s nonetheless colourful, simply much less so. It’s additionally a feminine, so it produces fruit.

The unique ‘Armstrong’ was discovered rising on a farm in Hartgrove, Ohio, although it wasn’t a named cultivar on the time. Newton G. Armstrong took one have a look at it and paid $5 to make it his.

‘Armstrong’

In 1948, he shared his discovery with Ed Scanlon of Scanlon Nursery and it was launched to market in 1949.

It’s hardy in Zones 4 to 9. Yow will discover vegetation accessible from Nature Hills Nursery.

If yow will discover ‘Armstrong Gold,’ it’s related in all methods besides that it has shiny golden fall foliage and a extra dense development behavior.

Autumn Blaze

There are quite a few present cultivars and new ones hitting the market on a regular basis, however the preferred needs to be Autumn Blaze®.

Arbor Day Basis’s City Tree of the Yr in each 2003 and 2004, Autumn Blaze® was bred within the late Nineteen Sixties by nurseryman Glenn A. Jeffers of Jeffers Nursery in Fostoria, Ohio.

It was launched to the market by Poplar Farms of Batavia, Illinois in 1982.

This favourite is hardy in Zones 3 to eight, and finally grows to 50 toes tall and 40 toes extensive. The deep inexperienced leaves look just like silver maple, with tremendous shiny crimson fall coloring that lasts for a protracted whereas.

The undersides of the leaves are silvery and the petioles on leaves uncovered to shiny mild will likely be crimson, whereas these in shadier spots will likely be inexperienced. The veins is likely to be reddish as properly.

Autumn Blaze® is a quick grower and might add three to 5 toes annually, with a rounded crown.

Within the late winter, new development develops with a crimson hue, which provides shade and curiosity to the dreary winter panorama.

It produces samaras and crimson or inexperienced flowers, and whereas bushes are male, some nonetheless produce fruit.

Autumn Blaze

It’s immune to verticillium wilt and leafhopper injury, simply one more reason that this cultivar nabbed the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Backyard Benefit in 2012.

Yow will discover Autumn Blaze® accessible at Quick Rising Bushes in quite a lot of sizes.

Autumn Fantasy

This 50-foot-tall tree is just like Autumn Blaze® however it’s thought of an improved model, with higher branching, brighter, extra constant ruby crimson fall foliage, and adaptableness to a wider vary of environments like scorching, dry areas and alkaline soil.

It’s even robust sufficient to develop in Zones 3 to 9.

‘Autumn Fantasy’ has a rounded form and grows to about 40 toes extensive.

The inexperienced leaves have silvery undersides and even the younger leaves turn out to be brilliantly coloured within the fall, which isn’t one thing all Freeman maples can say.

It’s additionally tremendous fast-growing, including 4 toes or extra annually till maturity.

‘Autumn Fantasy’

Yow will discover ‘Autumn Fantasy’ accessible at Nature Hills Nursery.

Celebration

Celebration® is as robust as nails. It’s completely unbothered by the warmth and air pollution of city situations, and is unlikely to interrupt throughout heavy winds and snow.

That’s sufficient to have anybody celebrating.

It has a beautiful oval kind with inexperienced, closely lobed leaves that flip yellow-orange within the fall. When mature, it grows to about 50 toes tall and as much as 35 toes extensive.

Celebration

Dropped at market by Lake Nation Nurseries, it grows in Zones 4 to eight.

If you wish to begin a celebration in your backyard yow will discover vegetation accessible at Nature Hills Nursery.

Firefall

Firefall™ was developed by the College of Minnesota to outlive the frigid winters within the space and was launched to market in 2005.

It’s the results of crossing a ‘Beebe’ cutleaf silver maple and an ‘Autumn Spire’ crimson maple. Firefall™is a seedless sort, so there will likely be no “helicopters” to scrub up within the spring.

Because of the genetics of ‘Beebe,’ it has deeply lobed leaves that flip sensible orange and crimson within the fall, protecting the oval-shaped tree in shiny shade in Zones 3b to 7b.

Firefall

When mature, it grows 50 toes tall and as much as 40 toes extensive.

It’s arduous to discover a higher choice in case you’re on the lookout for an accent on your yard and you reside within the colder finish of the Acer vary. Yow will discover Firefall™ accessible at Nature Hills Nursery.

Marmo

The Chicago Botanic Backyard, the Morton Arboretum, and the Decorative Growers Affiliation of Northern Illinois joined forces to create the Chicagoland Grows program, and one among their early introductions was the attractive ‘Marmo.’

‘Marmo’ is a wonderful cultivar if you wish to develop your tree close to a patio or walkway as a result of it doesn’t produce any fruit – which implies no mess.

It’s additionally columnar in form, rising as much as 70 toes tall however simply 40 toes extensive. This cultivar is fast-growing and provides greater than two toes per yr.

Within the fall, the foliage shifts to a mix of inexperienced, yellow, orange, crimson, and burgundy. Then, within the spring as the brand new leaves emerge, it takes on a pinkish hue earlier than the leaves flip inexperienced.

You may develop ‘Marmo’ in Zones 3 to eight.

Sienna Glenn

Typically the most effective issues are joyful accidents, like when this tree was found on an deserted farm in Lake Elmo, Minnesota in 1990.

With its pyramidal kind and shiny crimson fall foliage, ‘Sienna Glenn,’ additionally known as ‘Sienna’ or ‘Sienna Glen,’ is an attention-grabbing choice.

It has a powerful central chief and grows as much as 50 toes tall and 40 toes extensive on the base. The leaves are smaller than most Freeman varieties, with deep lobes and serrated margins.

‘Sienna Glenn’

In the course of the summer season, the leaves are inexperienced with silver undersides earlier than altering to shiny yellow, orange, crimson, and burgundy within the fall.

It’s additionally principally seedless, so it received’t make an enormous mess in your panorama.

For those who dwell in Zones 4 to six, go to Nature Hills Nursery to choose one up.

Managing Pests and Illness

Freeman maples are usually drawback free. So long as you plant them in the fitting location and supply acceptable water, more often than not your tree will deal with itself with none bother.

Now, right here’s the factor. I hate it when consultants say stuff like that as a result of it makes me really feel like I did one thing fallacious if my supposedly robust tree is sick.

That’s why I wish to add that typically points occur and even the most effective cared for tree could be visited by pests or pathogens. That’s simply the luck of the draw.

For those who catch an infestation or an infection early on, the possibilities are good the tree can get better. Let’s speak concerning the pests you may encounter, first.

Bugs

Insect issues are most typical on younger bushes which are nonetheless changing into established within the backyard.

An infestation can shortly turn out to be a major problem on a tiny little plant. The excellent news is that it’s often approach simpler to kill pests after they’re in a small space reasonably than on a 70-foot-tall tree.

Cottony Maple Scale

Cottony maple scale (Pulvinaria innumerabilis) and cottony maple leaf scale (P. acericola) love maples and boxelder bushes (Acer negundo), in addition to white ash (Fraxinus americana), dogwood (Cornus spp.), beech (Fagus spp.), apple (Malus spp.), oak (Quercus spp.), linden (Tilia spp.), elm (Ulmus spp.), and black locust (Robinia spp.).

If in case you have any of those species in your panorama along with your Freeman’s maple, your probabilities of experiencing an infestation are elevated.

The primary time you encounter these pests, you may mistake them for signs of a illness or some type of funky development.

That’s as a result of the bugs cluster in massive teams and don’t transfer a lot. They’re coated in a waxy coating that makes them look extra like a cluster of waxy lumps.

Their egg sacs seem like fuzzy or cottony white growths. They’re round balls that may be half an inch lengthy and extensive.

Cottony maple leaf scale sacs seem on the underside of leaves whereas the sacs of cottony maple scale seem on stems and branches.

Because the sapsucking bugs feed, they will trigger yellow stippling on the leaves, department dieback, and even tree loss of life.

You’ll additionally discover sticky honeydew, which is their secretions, everywhere in the leaves and on something beneath the tree.

The populations are likely to swell one yr and disappear one other, however in case you see numerous egg plenty, assume you’ve bought an enormous infestation and this drawback is extra than simply an annoying nuisance and must be addressed.

Keep away from utilizing chemical pesticides, as these additionally kill the bugs that sometimes hold these pests in verify.

Parasitoid ichneumonid wasps, girl beetles, and lacewings all feed on scale. Insecticidal cleaning soap is efficient towards the crawlers, which is the nymph stage of the pest.

Knock off the egg sacs with a powerful stream of water. Then, spray the tree each few weeks with insecticidal cleaning soap.

Monterey Insecticidal Cleaning soap

Seize some Monterey Insecticidal Cleaning soap at Arbico Organics in a 32-ounce ready-to-spray bottle.

Leafhoppers

The Japanese leafhopper (Japananus hyalinus) hitched a trip on vegetation from Asia to North America within the late 1800s and has made a meal of vegetation within the Acer genus from Canada to Mexico ever since.

Whereas it was initially discovered on Japanese maples, it would additionally feed on different species and hybrids, together with Freeman.

The leafhopper has a yellowish-green head, a brown physique, and translucent wings with rust-brown bands.

The females are about three-sixteenth of an inch lengthy and the males are simply barely shorter.

The eggs, that are laid within the bark, hatch within the spring. The nymphs, which undergo 5 molts, start to feed on the leaves as quickly as they hatch.

After the 5 moltings, they emerge as adults and the cycle repeats. Relying on the size of your rising season, there is likely to be two generations annually.

When there’s a massive infestation, you possibly can hear the feeding exercise, it may be that intense.

Fortuitously, these pests aren’t immune to pesticides, so any product that accommodates pyrethrins will kill them off.

Spray the tree as soon as each two weeks whereas the pests are current utilizing a product like Monterey Bug Buster-O.

Monterey Bug Buster-O

It’s accessible at Arbico Organics in eight- or 16-ounce spray bottles.

Mites

There are two sorts of eriophyid gall mites that feed on maples. The primary is the bladdergall mite (Vasates quadripedes) and the spindlegall mite (V. aceriscrumana).

You may’t see the white or clear microscopic mites themselves.

Their feeding outcomes first in depressed dots on the floor of the leaf adopted by pouch-like inexperienced gall formations in the identical space.

The mites dwell in these galls, which step by step flip crimson, and when the pests mature, they lay eggs, go away the gall, and discover a new leaf to infest. Then they disguise out through the winter within the bark. Along with the unpleasant galls, in addition they trigger leaf distortion.

Populations fluctuate yr to yr, with a tree being closely infested one yr and nary a mite in sight the following.

They’re ugly and arduous to regulate, however they’re actually only a beauty drawback.

Predatory mites will assist hold the pests below management, and in case you’re determined to cease the signs, you possibly can spray the trunk and branches with a product that accommodates pyrethrin within the spring as quickly because the climate begins warming above freezing.

Repeat each two weeks for six weeks.

The aim is to kill the adults as they transfer from the bark to the leaves as that is after they’re most weak.

Pruning off leaves as quickly as they begin displaying signs can even assist scale back populations. Put the leaves in a sealed bag and eliminate them within the trash.

Illness

Bushes within the Acer genus are vulnerable to verticillium wilt, so it wouldn’t be honest to say that Freeman maples are immune, however they’re hardly ever affected by this illness.

Nonetheless, be looking out for sudden wilting, even when you realize that the tree has acquired sufficient water. Often, it received’t be the complete tree that may wilt however just a few branches or perhaps a bit.

Typically the tree will drop leaves or have a common sickly look.

For those who scrape off the bark on the trunk or a symptomatic department or twig, you will notice inexperienced streaks. For those who see each the inexperienced streaks and wilting, chances are high extraordinarily excessive that it’s vert.

If that’s the case, take away symptomatic branches and help the tree with acceptable water and fertilizer.

You don’t have to take away it as a result of the pathogen that causes this illness is already within the soil the place it could possibly dwell with out a host plant, so it received’t assist to take it out at this level.

Nevertheless, if the tree is in dangerous form, it received’t get better and removing might be finest.

For those who resolve to plant one other tree, it would must be one thing resistant like birch (Betula spp.), dogwood (Cornus spp.), ginkgo (G. biloba), crabapple (Malus spp.), crimson oak (Quercus rubrus), or willow (Salix spp.).

Greatest Makes use of for Freeman Maples

As a shade tree for a garden, or in Japanese, cottage, or rain gardens, it’s arduous to beat the Freeman maple because of its robust nature and delightful development.

The extra upright cultivars are good as road or parking zone bushes.

They will even work for bonsai, and I really like to make use of the branches in reduce flower preparations within the fall.

Since these bushes can tolerate each drought and sometimes moist soil, they’re a superb selection for difficult areas the place different species will fail to thrive.

Fast Reference Rising Information

Plant Kind:	Deciduous panorama tree	Foliage Colour:	Pink, inexperienced, yellow, orange
Native to:	Cultivated hybrid	Tolerance:	Drought, occasional flooding
Hardiness (USDA Zone):	3-9	Water Wants:	Reasonable
Season:	Spring flowers, fall foliage	Upkeep:	Low
Publicity:	Full solar to partial shade	Soil Kind:	Organically wealthy
Time to Maturity:	10 years	Soil pH:	5.5-7.5
Spacing	As much as 20 toes, relying on cultivar	Soil Drainage:	Effectively-draining
Planting Depth:	Similar depth as rising container (potted vegetation), simply above root flare (naked root)	Attracts:	Pollinators (when blooming)
Top:	70 toes	Makes use of:	Bonsai, cottage backyard, Japanese backyard, garden, parking strip, rain backyard
Unfold:	50 toes	Household:	Sapindaceae
Development Charge:	Quick	Genus:	Acer
Frequent Pests and Illness:	Cottony maple scale, leafhoppers, mites; verticillium wilt	Species:	x freemanii

The Better of Each Worlds

I feel plant breeders are like magicians. They’ve the flexibility to mix the genetics of two bushes to create a hybrid with all the most effective traits of each.

Freeman maples are a major instance. Quick-growing, sturdy, and with numerous daring shade – these bushes give you numerous to like.

Are you rising Freeman’s maples? If not, which cultivar will you select? Tell us within the feedback part beneath!

And for extra details about the great world of rising maples, add these guides to your studying listing subsequent: