Maple Leaves Forever visited Winkelmolen Nursery Ltd. recently to introduce our new Executive Director Deb Pella Keen to the staff and to get her boots dirty with a tour of the nursery facilities and production fields. We were shown high quality native maple seedlings, saplings and larger trees growing in fertile soils as we travelled throughout the nursery. We were encouraged to hear that the nursery is continuing to make incremental increases in their production of native maples, with an awareness of the need for the planting of more native species.

Our hosts, Jeff Winkelmolen and Christian Schramp took time to explain to Deb how trees were being grown and “the why we do this” on many occasions. It was a thoroughly relaxed and entertaining visit. 

We thanked Christian and Jeff for their hospitality and a said a special Thank You to the Winkelmolen family for their continued support of the Maple Leaves Forever Program.

*A note regarding seedling and sapling age:

Seedling age is determined by the number of years the seedlings have grown in a nursery seedbed, or the time since the seed was planted into a nursery seedbed. It takes two years to grow a sugar maple seedling.  This is called a 2+0 seedling. The “2” tells us the number of years in the seedbed. The “0” tells us the seedling has spent no time in a transplant field.

The nursery industry uses this correlation to tell the age of seedlings and transplants. For example, a 2+2 tree spends 2 years growing in a seedbed and 2 additional years in a transplant bed. It is four years old.

The “one year old saplings” above, are 5 year old trees, having spent 2 years in a seedbed + two years lined out in a nursery field + 1 additional year in a nursery field during which time it is cultured to produce a sapling. Timewise, it is five years old from when the seed was planted into a seedbed on the nursery. Its actual age is 2+2+1 or 5 years. Size 100-150 cm. 

A “two year old sapling” is six years old, having spent two years growing in the seedbed + two years lined out in the nursery field + 2 years of specialized cultural care in the nursery. Actual age is 2+2+2 or 6 years. Size 150-250 cm.

The hot, dry summer of 2018 has produced a heavier than normal “seed crop” on our native maples for 2019.

During the past few weeks (early to late-June), our native red and silver maples have shed their seed crops where they are growing along city streets and in parklands.

The larger silver maple seed can be seen along walkways and on the grass in neighbourhoods. The much smaller red maple seed is harder to find.

A less common, naturally occurring hybrid of these species (Freeman’s maple) occurs where the range of these species overlaps. Its seed is distinct from that of either parent trees.

The seed of Sugar and Black maple matures in mid-September.

We had a few nights with below freezing temperatures last week, but that didn’t slow up one of our earliest spring bloomers. Red Maple (Acer rubrum) started blooming in early April and this bit of cold wasn’t enough to interfere with seed development on these trees in central and southwestern Ontario.

The flowers start out as tight red buds, often appearing as clusters on dwarf shoots on last year’s reddish-brown twigs, adding a bit of colour to the twigs, even before they bloom. They are conspicuous, visible from the ground, even on large trees. As the buds expand, exposing the flowers, the tree canopy takes on a subtle red hue, before any leaves begin to unfurl.

Both male and female flowers can be found on the same tree, a condition called ‘momoecious’, but the most common occurrence is for trees to have only all male or all female flowers – called ‘dioecious’. They don’t look the way you expect flowers to look; they look like little red (or red and yellow) pom-poms.

The male trees bear pollen-laden flowers; the female flowers will develop into red, winged samaras (seed) when pollinated. Pollination is primarily by the wind as there are very few natural pollinators present at this time; but honey bees do visit red maple trees.

In early May, as the male flowers fade and wither on some trees, red maple seed begins to form on adjacent trees. After the flowers are pollinated, the female flowers produce tiny, pinkish-red samaras, that dangle on long ‘pedicels’ (stalks). The masses of these gives the trees the appearance of still being in bloom.

Within a few weeks, they develop into paired samaras with colours ranging from pale green with a pinkish margin on some trees to other trees having bright red samaras. Depending on the spring weather we get, the seed will be fully mature by the end of May to early June.

The colour of the seed samaras (2.0-3.0 cm long) change to a pale reddish brown to straw brown at maturity. The pedicels that connect the samaras to the tree then become dry and brittle. Within a few days, the seed will begin to fall from the tree or be dispersed by the wind.

Red maple is so-named for its red winter twigs and buds, red flowers and for its tendency to have red summer petioles and vibrant red fall foliage.

Write-up and Photography by Carl Mansfield, Arboreal Consultant, Maple Leaves Forever
Editing and layout by Mary Bella, Webmaster & Communications, Maple Leaves Forever