maple , plants in the genus Acer , are among the loveliest of trees , and Washington has three outstanding species : big - leaf maple , vine maple and Douglas maple are all valued ornamentals , but each has a situation in which it shines . For a large spook tree , choose the swelled - leaf maple . For a delicate tree in part - spectre , try vine maple . For a drought - kind little tree , plant the Douglas maple .
Big Leaf Maple
This tree diagram , botanically know as Acer macrophyllum , is value as an ornamental more in other area of the world than in its native Northwest , perhaps because it is so common there . The dinner - plate - sized leaves , the monumental , often moss - continue luggage compartment and the spreading physique all make it a well choice as a specimen tree where it has room to be admire , but it ’s not for a small garden .
Easy to produce from seeded player , adaptable to most areas in western Washington , the big - leaf maple needs little body of water once build , but will spring up in moist grunge , near to the border of a pond or marsh . The area beneath the tree , however , is difficult to garden in . Choose aboriginal shrubs such as salal and evergreen huckleberry as companions .
Vine Maple
Many the great unwashed are familiar with the vine maple , Acer circinatum , as the lank , narrow-minded - stemmed bush with small , roundish toothed farewell found along rivers . In declination , it ’s often seen as a small George W. Bush with flushed or orange color along tidy sum main road . In gardens , its form is rather different .
With plenty of water and tincture , it will flourish into a nicely shaped small tree , beautifully temporary , but can get up to 30 feet high and about as wide . When planted in groups , it is especially lovely .
In Sunday , it is more dumb and shaggy , often necessitate thinning to show off its truck , but it does well with steady lawn - character watering .
It can be grown from come or you may buy baby’s room - grown specimens if you have n’t the patience to wait for seedling . Side branches trailing on the ground often mould roots and can be remove and plant .
Douglas Maple
This small tree , Acer glabrum var . douglasii , is one variety of the Rocky Mountain maple found over much of the westerly U.S. It is launch in both lowland and tidy sum region , in moist soils and in quite ironic areas . Its farewell are standardised to the vine maple , but slimly more pointed .
In cold winter , eastern Washington areas , this is the maple to plant , though it does quite well west of the sight , especially in the dryer areas such as the San Juan Island or in gay , gravelly website .
Douglas maple is not as refined as the vine maple and incline to work multi - trunked President Bush , if allowed . It does , however , have courteous fall colouration , red , orangish or soft yellow .
It can also be propagate from semen , which germinate prolifically .
