This cultivar was partly selected because of its unique combination of good traits from two native species - red maple and silver maple. The Autumn Blaze Maple captures her ancestor's good qualities including brilliant orange-red color, dense and healthy branching, and a vigor that enhances growth and protects from insects and disease.
Autumn Blaze Maple has a full patent and was selected by the late Glenn Jeffers of Jeffers Nursery in North Central Ohio. The tree has been developed by and can be purchased from Poplar Farms, Inc of Batavia, IL. Autumn Blaze Maple is known for its superior fall color, unexcelled growth rates, insect and disease resistance and a wide range of adaptability. The tree can adapt from the frigid hardiness of Zone 3 in the north to the warm, humid south of Zone 8. It inherits its hardiness from A. saccharinum to survive in dry and frost prone regions.
Autumn Blaze Maple's (ABM) rate of growth is significantly faster than a red maple, growing to 50 or 60 feet tall and 30 to 40 feet wide. This tree is not as susceptible to storm damage as the silver maple because it has superior crotch angles and branch habit. It has the ability to grow in most soils with the application of additional nitrogen.
ABM's red maple parent is a favorite yard tree in most North American regions, beloved for its year-round red features, especially the fall foliage. Red maple has the largest range of any North American hardwood and is the state tree of Rhode Island.
ABM's silver maple parent grows into a venerable big tree and lines many American streets. It is especially known for quick growth, a shady disposition and shaggy bark. It, however, is on urban foresters' hit lists because of brittleness and a tendancy to break under stress.
Arthur Plotnik, in The Urban Tree Book, suggests these "cultivars breed trees that emphasize the best of various natural traits like brilliant and enduring foliage, handsome shape and weather tolerance. The hybrid Autumn Blaze Maple grows fast and tolerates drought as well as one of its parents. But come autumn, it does what few silver maples do: It blazes."
