Japanese Sunrise Japanese Maple
Acer palmatum 'Japanese Sunrise'
Height: 20 feet
Spread: 25 feet
Sunlight:
Hardiness Zone: 5b
Group/Class: Coral Bark
Description:
An awesome small home landscape feature tree, this cultivar is valued for its remarkable variations in bark color ranging from bright coral red to yellow; yellow, orange, to red fall foliage color is outstanding; give it a prominent place in the landscape
Ornamental Features
Japanese Sunrise Japanese Maple is primarily valued in the landscape for its ornamental globe-shaped form. It features subtle corymbs of red flowers rising above the foliage in mid spring before the leaves. It has green foliage with hints of yellow which emerges lime green in spring. The lobed palmate leaves turn outstanding shades of yellow, orange and scarlet in the fall. The rough yellow bark and red branches are extremely showy and add significant winter interest.
Landscape Attributes
Japanese Sunrise Japanese Maple is an open deciduous tree with a more or less rounded form. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.
This is a relatively low maintenance tree, and should only be pruned in summer after the leaves have fully developed, as it may 'bleed' sap if pruned in late winter or early spring. It has no significant negative characteristics.
Japanese Sunrise Japanese Maple is recommended for the following landscape applications;
- Accent
- Shade
- Mass Planting
Planting & Growing
Japanese Sunrise Japanese Maple will grow to be about 20 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 25 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 4 feet from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a slow rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 80 years or more.
This tree does best in full sun to partial shade. You may want to keep it away from hot, dry locations that receive direct afternoon sun or which get reflected sunlight, such as against the south side of a white wall. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.
