Fall color or lack of in my acer rubrum

Perhaps 20 years ago I took my Mother to Vermont to see the fall color. We took all the back roads, and we saw milions of red maple seedlings along the road. Mother was in her upper 80's but still active in her lawn and gardens. She insisted we dig up at least one seedling. I chose one about 12' tall with probably 20 fire red leaves. I now live in the family home and my seedling is probably 8' tall, but not one red leaf. I live in northern Illinois, and I know that both the climate and the soil here are different than that of Vermont. but what can I do to get my leaves RED. Would amending the soil with Aluminum Sulphate help?
Thanks, Nachusaron

Unfortunately fall color is mostly out of your control. It has more to do with climate/weather conditions during the year and not much to do with the soil. Out here for example we don't get much in the way of fall color at all from trees that would put on a great show if they were located somewhere else in the country. I'd make sure the tree gets adequate water if you have a dry year, but honestly there's not really much you can do. You'd be better off looking for a different sort of maple that you've observed has good fall color in your area, this one may just not give good color in your climate.

Your right that Vermont has acid soils, and Illinois in general doesn't. It is possible that this would make a difference with Red maples, but really, Ecrane is right. More probable is that it is due to more than one factor, and trying to acidify soil for a tree is silly anyway, IMO. You would have to eventually do your whole yard, and probably a neighbor's section too. Roots can easily travel twice the height of the tree. And it wouldn't be a one time ammendment either.

The tree is 20 years old but only 8ft tall?

Normally we don't get that good of colour on our trees. For some reason we had great fall colour this year. Even Styrax japonicus had a nice yellow colour. Normally it just quickly goes brown/yellow and drops.

it started out as 12' and is now only 8'. i think there surely must be a typo, or else you got the charlie brown christmas tree lol!

I'm assuming he meant 12 inches when he dug it, but the 8ft part has still got me stumped. After two decades a red maple should be at least 30ft tall.

She said it was a seedling so I'm assuming the 12' was meant to be 12"

I agree, 8 feet after 20 years in the ground does sound awfully small. I didn't notice that part when I first read it. Unless maybe it was in a container for the first 18 or 19 years?

rofl! it's getting late and i'm getting slap happy. i keep envisioning some sort of sumac, with those flaming red leaves and only 8' high.

My Red Maple is about 10 years old and has never turned red in the fall. Right now it still has leaves on it and they are a reddish brown. It's a bummer.

Thanks to all who took the time to try helping me with my green red maple. I am not certain just what year I dug up my seedling, but it is more than 15 years I know. As I said Mother was in her 80's so she did not pick the best spot to plant it, and did not bother to protect it from Peter rabit who had several mid night snacks from my poor red maple. I must tell you that when I was last at the farm my tree was butter yellow. It will probably never turn red, but the memories of how I got that tree are priceless.
Thanks again,
Nachusaron