Acer palmatum 'Villa Taranto' - Villa Taranto Japanese Maple

Graceful bamboo-like leaves are chartreuse with red tones during summer on this delicate garden specimen, foliage turns gold with reddish tones in fall; slow growing and compact, a ideal size for the garden composition

Height: 10 feet. Spread: 10 feet. Sun: full sun to partial shade. Hardiness zone: 5b.

Ornamental features

Villa Taranto Japanese Maple is primarily valued in the landscape or garden for its ornamental globe-shaped form. It has attractive red-variegated chartreuse foliage which emerges red in spring. The small deeply cut ferny palmate leaves are highly ornamental and turn outstanding shades of gold and red in the fall.

Landscape

Villa Taranto Japanese Maple is an open deciduous tree with a strong central leader and a more or less rounded form. 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: Accent, Mass Planting, Hedges/Screening, General Garden Use, Container Planting.

Planting and growing

Villa Taranto Japanese Maple will grow to be about 10 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 10 feet. It tends to be a little leggy, with a typical clearance of 1 foot 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 60 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.