Acer Palmatum Emerald Lace

Acer palmatum Emerald Lace
 Acer palmatum Emerald Lace is a deep green cultivar of the Japanese maple with three-season beauty in the garden, which grows quickly to its mature size. The RHS has given it the Award of Garden Merit because of its value to U.K. gardeners.

When Japanese Maple Emerald Lace’s finely dissected, lacy leaves unfurl in the spring, they are a bright yellow-green, sometimes with orange edges, contrasting with the red petioles, before turning a deep and intense emerald green shade during the summer months, and then finishing with a bright, strong red in the autumn. Its drooping branches create a soft silhouette. While it does produce small purplish flowers in the spring, followed by red fruits in the late summer, its value for the gardener is in its beautiful leaves. Fully hardy in the U.K., Japanese Maple Emerald Lace can grow as much as a metre in one year, and will reach its mature height and spread of 4 metres in ten years, making it an ideal tree to fill in a bare garden spot quickly.  It needs little or no annual pruning to maintain its shape. 

Like all the Japanese maples, Acer palmatum Emerald Lace does best in well-drained moist rich clay, sand or loam soil, with an acid to neutral ph. It will thrive in full sun or partial shade, and does best in a sheltered position, with an east, south, or west exposure. Because of its moderate size at maturity, Japanese Maple Emerald Lace will do well as a container planting or in a courtyard setting, where its striking foliage will be shown off to good advantage.  It also makes an excellent specimen tree for a focal point in the lawn, since its colour is so distinctive throughout the growing season. 

Acer Palmatum Emerald Lace can also play a role at the back of a mixed border, with the changing colour of its leaves and lacy texture providing a lovely backdrop for the flowers taking centre stage, and giving some structure to the border even in winter months with its graceful pendulous branches. It also can be planted as a part of a mixed hedge border or as an understory tree in a wooded landscape, as it will tolerate partial shade. Wherever it is planted, it will quickly grow and give to your landscape its graceful shape and brilliant 3 seasons of colour, with little care required in return!