Acer palmatum 'Hubb's Red Willow' - Hubb's Red Willow Japanese Maple

This beauty has delicate long and narrowly lobed leaves of red, with orange and red fall color; upright growth habit is almost columnar when young, becoming broader with age; ideal for general garden use

Height: 12 feet. Spread: 8 feet. Sun: full sun to partial shade. Hardiness zone: 5a.

Ornamental features

Hubb's Red Willow Japanese Maple is primarily valued in the landscape or garden for its ornamental narrow, upright habit of growth. It has attractive green deciduous foliage which emerges pink in spring. The deeply cut lobed palmate leaves are highly ornamental and turn outstanding shades of scarlet and orange in the fall.

Landscape

Hubb's Red Willow Japanese Maple is a dense multi-stemmed deciduous tree with a narrow, upright habit of growth, reaching about 6 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide in 10 years and broadening to a vase shape with age. It lends an extremely fine and delicate texture to the landscape composition which can make it a great accent feature on this basis alone.

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.

Recommended for: Mass Planting, Hedges/Screening, General Garden Use, Container Planting.

Planting and growing

Hubb's Red Willow Japanese Maple will grow to be about 12 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 8 feet. It has a low canopy, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a slow rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 50 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.

Photo courtesy of NetPS Plant Finder.