Posted: Sunday, March 9, 2008 12:00 am
Listen -- it's the plaintive cry of the house-bound gardener!
"Will this winter ever be over?"
You've heard the whining, pitiful sound echoing across northeastern Iowa, and perhaps added your own voice to the cacophony, lying flat on your back and seeing stars after after slipping and falling on a patch of ice for the second or third time this season.
Enough already! I feel like Mother Nature is twisting my arm around my back, wanting me to say "uncle!"
Last year, I recall walking around my yard in early March and seeing signs of spring-blooming flowers poking their heads above ground. Daffodils are always early bloomers on the south and west sides of the house, but that area is covered with a layer of snow and ice.
When spring is finally sprung and the days grow warmer and longer, I'm also looking forward to the ever-increasing canopy of shade from the Autumn Blaze maple tree I planted nearly four years ago. I bought it for $25 through the "Plant Some Shade" program, sponsored by MidAmerican Energy, Waterloo Leisure Services and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Bureau of Forestry.
At planting, it stood about 6-feet-tall. It's more than doubled in height -- at least by "eyeball" measurement -- and stands straight and true. The branches appear undamaged by frigid Arctic blasts and I'm hoping no rodents have noshed the trunk buried deep in snow. In fall, the foliage turns an intense reddish-orange and is simply glorious.
No wonder the Iowa Nursery and Landscape Association chose it as their 1997 tree of the year and it is now considered one of the most popular trees in the Midwest.
I was reminded how much I love that maple tree when a news release from Bailey's Nursery arrived in my e-mail, heralding their latest First Editions tree, the Scarlet Jewell maple. The nursery, based in St. Paul, Minn., describes Acer rubrum Bailcraig, (marketed as Scarlet Jewell) as a "full, upright maple which turns a consistent deep crimson earlier in the fall, typically two weeks earlier, than other rubrum maples. A brilliant show of red flowers each spring adds to its year-round interest."
It was selected in northern Minnesota by Terry Schwartz of Bailey Nurseries, and "exhibits excellent symmetrical branching and resistance to frost cracking." It prefers moist, slightly acidic soil.
Autumn Blaze maple's cultivar name is Jeffersred and it is an Acer X freemanii maple. Described as "dependable, fast-growing," it is a hybrid of red and silver maple that combines the "vigor and adaptability of the silver maple along with the beauty and strength of the red maple," according to horticulturists at the University of Wisconsin. Iowa State University's Jeff Iles wrote in October 2006: "… On a warm, cloudless, brilliantly lit late September or early October afternoon, there are few sights more welcoming or reassuring than the unmistakable reddish-orange glow from a Jeffersred'Freeman maple."
Scarlet Jewell maple will be available at independent garden centers and nurseries this spring. Autumn Blaze is commonly available for many nurseries and garden centers.
Here are characteristics of both trees.
Scarlet Jewell Maple (Acer rubrum Bailcraig) at a glance:
Height: 70 feet
Width: 30 feet
Shape: Upright
Foliage: Dark green
Fall Foliage: Crimson
Zone: 3 to 7
Characteristics: Full, upright maple; show of red flowers in spring; fall color comes on two weeks earlier than other rubrum maples.
Autumn Blaze (Acer X freemanii Jeffersred)
Height: 50 to 60 feet
Width: 40 feet
Foliage: Medium green with silver lower surface
Fall foliage: Bright reddish-orange
Zone: 3 to 8
Characteristics: Grows quickly, about four times faster than a red maple, can grow to 3 or more feet per year; oval to rounded crown with ascending branches; grows in uniform shape and requires little pruning.