Red maple flowers

Who says maples aren't flowering trees?

Scott

That's a pretty photo with the red showing up on the green. If you blur your eyes a little bit, it looks like strands of red lights on the tree.

That's just a terrific image,Scott. Just a rubrum or something out of the ordinary that would maybe be hardy in zone 3-4? Lord knows I have plenty of the backdrop.

I've been admiring the maple flowers for the last 10 days or so. They really are prominent -- an much more beautiful IMO than all those doggone naturalized stinky callery pears!

Agreed...maple flowers can be pretty. A street near me had a bunch of maples under planted with forsythia bushes and the combination is rather pretty. I also admit to another planting that I thought was rather pretty...maples lined along both sides of a road with a row of Bradfords in the median.

- Brent

I've never seen a flowering maple. Must not grow in these parts. Mine is a Bloodgood.

Even Bloodgood will flower, it's just that most maple flowers are fairly insignificant and are not noticed. If you ever notice seeds on your tree, you'll know it flowered. Some Japanese maple cultivars have more showy flowers than others, just like some maple species have more showy flowers than others. For instance, red maple, now in bloom, is far more likely to be noticed than those of the silver maple, also now in bloom.

Scott

Scott, What is this maple, please? Ken

IMHO one of the nicest flowering maples is Acer spicatum, which blooms in terminal spikes after the foliage is out.

Guy S.

Sorry, Ken, what is what maple?

Scott

Red Maple = Acer rubrum.

Hands down the showiest flowers for a Maple would have to be A. japonicum. They hang in dainty little clusters that are very showy. I had no idea of this ornamental feature until I planted one of my own--what a treat. Here's a tease: What Maple has fragrant flowers?

In my opinion the seed display is just as lovely as the flowers.

Nobody sprung at Maackia's bait; here's a KY catfish strike.

Hmmm....Acer tataricum 'Red Wing' smells up my yard annually.

Brilliant trousers,

I was thinking A. ginnala, but that's close enough to win the big prize. Are A. ginnala and A. tataricum distinct species? The way you describe the affect of 'Red Wing' ("smells up my yard annually") leads me to believe your sniffer is not overly impressed by the fragrance of this tree. Your description sounds more like what the neighbors dog does to my yard.

What do you expect from someone who doesn't even open the wine!

I agree with Resin, as usual . . . but I wouldn't bet lunch on it!

Guy S.

Despite the mocking commentary from the frozen wastelands barely claimed by cooler headed cheddars (and you know who you are), I believe Macrosmatic was asking for an interpretation.

I only provided a "quick-draw" response above (quite late hour) to an obviously thoroughly pondered and posed puzzle. Maximus mea culpa to our esteemed member from the clear waters of WI.

When is this wine tasting? Looks as if we all get at least a couple bottles each. I'll bring the cheese curds. Just so you know they come in two colors, we could have the white curds with the white wine and the darker more full bodied orange curds with the red. Party in KY at V2's spread!

Cachinnation is now back in my good graces.

Cheese Curds of My Youth....

It's all streaming back. Summers, station wagon or motor home full of boisterous kids (10, count 'em, 10, unless one got left at the last rest stop) cruising the long flat miles from KY to WI. The disjunct population returning to its roots (varied routes included stops at homesteads in Heyworth IL; South Holland IL; Middleton WI; Appleton WI; all on the way to the pinnacle family farm in Kewaunee WI) so that "You'll know who your relatives are."

Rt. 163 (or was it Rt. 96?) near Stangelville; the road has a bit of roll to it there. Heat (or what passes for it in WI) rises from the pavement and creates the little "wet" mirages in a child's eye. Ah, July/August in dairy country. Then, from behind endless stands of corn crops, the familiar outline of a big commercial facility comes into view and a kid's salivary glands kick into overdrive. The Cheese Factory (I'd give credit, but the name's a blank right now...C___? K___? Brain cells overcome by cheese amnesia).

I am sure the patient souls that worked there (so much like the patient four-footed black-and-whites that provided the raw material) were used to screaming meemies coming in for tours every so often. Somewhere in The Great Reward there's a special place for those who put up with 10 at once, from the same family, religiously every summer (and sometimes twice -- coming and going).

And the curds were always the best part. Salty, just enough texture to give that squeaky sound/feeling when chewed, and inevitably generated a thirst for several ice cold bottles of Orange Fanta (which is really green those In the Know).

What was left to mold a young man's life experience, except to roll into the gravel driveway of the farm; take a run through the shedrows and stalls of the dairy barn (you could really get a good slide going in the cow poop); dare the youngest to touch the electric fence; and blissfully drift off to sleep in the generous comfortable lap of Aunt Alice or Uncle Emil (or Tony...or Eleanor...or..or.......) and some contented distant mooing to inspire dreams of being a steward of the land.

Too cool, V2, I was able to observe such a family in a local ice cream parlor last summer on a particularly warm (I'll not use the word 'hot' for that only occurs down state where one is further from a cooling body of water)afternoon. There must have been a dozen, all sisters/brothers ( spitting images of each other ) and they worked together like a finely tuned clock. I don't believe one drop of ice cream hit the floor. My most vivid recollection was of an older, maybe 12 year old daughter with a younger boy on her hip eating her cone and wiping his mouth and as she passed another sibling catching a drip with perfect timing without looking or stopping with a "move" so natural it swelled your heart and caught your breath. Not one whine, not one complaint in line, they were gone and you were left only with "Wow" Ken

VV,

In a comical way that is very touching...a real sense of family and place. The road mirages you describe were no doubt hallucinatory affects caused by prolonged exposure to Holstein manure--common affliction in these parts.

Decumbent,

Loved the maple pic. Looks just like mine!!! I sure didn't expect her to flower. I have not seen hardly any maples planted down here in Texas, maybe I'm looking good enough. They tend to have lots of oaks of all kinds which are good but I worry what might happen if some epidemic struck, like what's destroying all the beautiful elms in the north....

Mary, I sure agree it's a much better alternative to a pear. =)

Scott: Was that a maple picture from your yard? How is it looking now? About to cover you in winged seeds? I just moved into a new house that has hundreds of Red Maples! Okay, that is not entirely true. It has only 3 Red Maples that are over 10 ft tall and hundreds of them that are just an inch or two tall growing in just about every flower bed.

- Brent

Hi Brent,

That tree was just down the road at an office park. I'll have to spin by there and see how many samaras it has.

Scott

I really do have hundreds of them. They are pretty in the spring but like Brent_In_NoVa said, they put off lots and lots of seedlings. Oh' well, at least they do give the Chinese tallow's some good competition around here.