You can find pertinent discussion and even pictures on the GW Maples forum at this time.

I will just say-and location is everything here-that from the first time I brought A. freemanii 'Autumn Blaze' to my city, having viewed some of this country's first plantings of that variety at the UW-Madison arboretum-to the present, that cultivar, even though widely viewed, even by me, as over-planted, is still the best, again, for our area. I've looked at some of the others, most recently 'Sienna Glen' and at least in the early going, I'm not impressed.

Depends on what you're looking for, as well as where you reside. 'Autumn Blaze' has generally exhibited the best fall color, growth rate, and structure, albeit this is not a plant-it-and-forget-it tree at all. V-crotches and included bark abound on non-leader-trained specimens. It's one thing for our city, with its well-trained and well-equipped arborists, to manage this fast and unruly grower. I shudder to think what's going to come of all the yard trees being planted with essentially no aftercare. There is going to be a lot of storm damage.

Yet, I like the other cultivars I've seen even less. I don't hang out at "Maples" so maybe there you will find much more in-depth info. But I have been dealing with Acer freemanii perhaps longer than most. I'm happy we plant them-we're steadily losing the big silver maples here for a variety of reasons, and we need large-growing trees-but there are plenty of caveats with this group.

+oM

I have had some very wise old arborists tell me that you can nurse a silver maple to live 100 years, but it takes a lot of luck and very judicious arborculture. Silver maples and Freeman types are the same in this regard. They really are not built for the long haul.

Another wise plantsman told me this: Plant an Autumn Blaze maple if you don't really care about the future and your only goal is to enjoy it for 10-20 years. Then let your heirs suffer the consequences of your short-term decisions.

Recently I have done a lot of research on this topic. It mainly depends on what you want, where you live, and your soil (acid/alkaline). I am leaning towards October Glory myself for it's color, better suited to the southeast, and stronger structure than Autumn Blaze.

My most recent discovery and favorite would be a Shantung Maple cultivar called Fire Dragon. Smaller than the red maple cults or silver/red hybrids, but better, more interesting structure like that of a very large japanese maple, and glorious red fall color. Only thing is one place mainly in the country has them, they do not ship, and you have to drive to Texas.

LOL... on a side note if any lives in Texas and wants to go get some and ship to me I'd be forever grateful lol.

Ray

I'm recommending Redpointe at this time. 75% red, 25% silver. Way better branching than Autumn Blaze and still maintains a good tolerance for alkaline soils in comparison to straight red maples. Very nice fall color that tranistions from orange-purple to bright red.

I've also used Autumn Fantasy with great success. It is extremely drought tolerant. I consider it more vigorous than Autumn Blaze. Only downside is the fall color can vary from year to year- but when it is on it is spectacular.

Marmo and Celebration both have much better branch structure than Autumn Blaze but not near the fall color.

Firefall is a newer hybrid and the leaves give it a neat texture. Fall color is a mix of colors (next few years will tell for sure how good fall color will be).

Sienna Glenn does not do well on higher pH soils and has a much slower growth rate. Fall color tends to be yellow-orange rather than red but is still quite attractive.

I still prefer the vigorous sugar maples like Fall Fiesta or Autumn Fest. Will not do as well in very heavy soils or very dry soils but in rich to light garden soils do excellent in the Midwest.

Overall I agree that for fall color consistency and quick growth Autumn Blaze is hard to beat. Original stock is very important. Many here in the 20-30' height range have split in half- others are thin and downright ugly. The ones that are nice full specimens are beautiful in the fall.

Like others have said the longevity of it is also doubtful. Those that I have seen in the 40-45' range have started dying back from the top during dry years. Has anyone seen a 25-30 year old large mature specimen? I'm curious as to what it would actually look like when entering full maturity.

30 years doesn't seem like what I would call a mature maple, it would have to be a lot older than that to be fully developed.

Note cultivar name is 'Jeffersred', with Autumn Blaze being a selling device.

Yup on the naming details.

Bruce, we've got trees (AB) in the thirty-year range now. Agreed, that's not mature, but it may be about as old an Autumn Blaze as you're going to see in most situations. they are growing rapidly still. Certainly, a long way off from slowing down.

Location, location, location! A county to the north, or to the west, for that matter, native red maples abound. Where you want a maple with red fall color, why mess with the success of thousands of years of gene sorting? But I'm on top of dolomite, with much more silt and clay. Here, if we want that look, we reach for the freemaniis. I don't believe they will be especially short-lived here. A 100 yr. old silver maple, for the sake of discussion, is not at all rare around here. The giant we took down in my back yard-at that time this city's largest single-trunked specimen-was right around 100 yrs. old and perfectly healthy. Now, a poor compartmentalizer like this or probably rubrum can be "healthy" and still have pockets of decay and small-diameter dead branches. But trust me, the thing could still produce enormous amounts of foliage, and in heavy seed years, enough production to get me out on the driveway with my snow shovel.

+oM