Deciduous question (Colorado Springs, Highlands Ranch, Woodland Park: home, to live in, moving to)

[fuddy]

I used to live in Baily, CO, years ago, before moving to MI (what a depressing mistake that was).
Well, I'm finally leaving the rotting trailers, trash filled streets & woods, insular, apathetic people & dead MI economy to come back home to CO. The only thing I'll miss about MI are the forests. I was wondering if red maple (acer rubrum), often found growing here in quite zeric conditions, would survive up around the Woodland Park area. I'm hoping with some soil amendment & leaf mulch they'd do O.K., without irrigation. I'd really appreciate any info, or even suggested alternatives. (I love the regular, dense, fine branching & silvery-white bark) Thanks!

[Mike from back east]

The fall colors up there are fabulous, but mostly aspens. Still, if maples can live in Canada and Michigan with those winters, they should do fine here. Best idea I have for you is to google up a nursery or landscape firm in that area and give them a call.

s/Mike

[AustinTraveler]

Here is a link to a Colorado Springs newspaper article about growing maples in Colorado:

http://www.springshomeandgarden.com/fullStory.jsp?id=5117 (broken link)

You're in luck; it looks like you just have to pick the right variety!

[fuddy]

Thanks guys. I'll check out some nurseries & that link. The red maples here can be found growing anywhere from swamps, to moist well drained soil, to dry, sandy soil with red pine (similar to Ponderosa Pine - you've got plenty of them around W.P. I think W.P. might get enough monsoon-season rainfall from T-storms to see them thru summer. Hope so. Thanks again.

[gpraceman]

I have seen the Blaze Maples (or Flame Maples as they may be called) a lot around here. They turn a very nice color of red in the fall.

Though, maples don't seem terribly strong. You have to be careful about snow accumulation on them with the fall and spring snows (very wet and heavy) that we can get; otherwise, you will lose branches or even the whole tree. At those times, I go out and knock as much snow off of them and our aspens as I can. We also lost the top off one of our silver maples due to wind.

[CSColorado]

We've bought several maples in both Colorado Springs and Highlands Ranch- the red flame. They live fine, but the branches really stay pretty bare. I keep wanting to get another just because the color is so pretty, but they never do what I hope they would. I think some of your best bets for a bright red fall color around here is a Burning Bush or Virginia Creeper. They aren't trees- but still a nice bright red color in the yard. We get all of our trees at Rocky Mountain Tree Farm- they are very helpful and have a handbook on different types of trees and how they do in our area. We have a variety of Cherry Tree (fruitless) that grows well around here. It turns purple in the summer... darn, I can't remember the name... It flowers in the spring. We made the mistake of planting one by our deck in our first house; it attracted bees like crazy.