If asked to describe the most delicate and graceful plant they could name, most plant people would immediately think of the cutleaf Japanese maple. These miniature trees are not much larger than the average shrub, usually growing to less than eight feet tall with an umbrella-shaped form that spreads 10 to 12 feet across. The round leaves are usually three inches long and cut with seven finger-like lobes that are deeply dissected, giving the leaf the appearance of living lace.
Leaf colors can be green, but most gardeners are more excited about the purple leaf types.
My personal favorites are the green leaf types because they not only have beautiful foliage all summer, but in the fall, they take on delicate shades of yellow in the autumn landscape. The purple leaf types usually have less fall color, but some will turn red. Japanese maples have been cultivated for centuries in Japan. N.Y. Although these were the first Japanese maples in the country, only a few of the hundreds of cultivars were introduced from the East coast. The great majority of fancy-leafed Japanese maple cultivars came across the Pacific with the wave of Japanese immigrants who settled in this country in the early years of this century.