Red Paperbark Maple {Acer griseum} d.w.. | Vibrant | Fast Growing Ornamental | Bonsai | 2023 harvest | 
Fall Planting 10 seeds Paperbark Maple is widely grown as an ornamental tree in temperate regions. 

It is admired for its decorative exfoliating bark, translucent pieces of 
which often stay attached to the branches until worn away. It also has 
spectacular autumn foliage which can include red, orange and pink tones.

The bark is smooth, shiny orange-red, peeling in thin, papery layers; it 
may become fissured in old trees. The shoots are densely downy at first, 
this wearing off by the second or third year and the bark exfoliating by 
the third or fourth year.This feature comes into its own during the winter 
months as the fan of up-swept  bare branches are illuminated by the low 
setting sun. Planting position is key and the surrounding planting must be 
kept low to ensure that the setting sun strikes the coppery strips of bark 
that peel away from the main trunk to bring a rich, warm glow to the Winter 
Garden.

Through the summer the tree has dark green, three-lobed leaves that turn 
a brilliant orange to crimson red in the autumn. This is one of the last 
maples to develop Autumn colour. Best grown in an open sunny position 
with only partial shade. Grows well in a variety of soil types but 
prefers a moist, well drained soil. This tree will not tolerate drought 
conditions well.

GERMINATION, SOWING AND AFTER CARE INFORMATION FOR
PAPERBARK MAPLE (ACER GRISEUM)
​
Paperbark Maple seeds of this species have a deep dormancy within them, 
this requires a degree of patience to overcome.

First soak the seeds in hot tap water and leave them to stand for 24 hours 
in the water as it cools.

 Next prepare a free draining substrate into which the seeds are to be mixed, 
this can be a 50/50 mixture of compost and sharp sand, or perlite, vermiculite. 
The chosen substrate needs to be moist (but not wet), if you can squeeze water 
out of it with your hand it is too wet and your seeds may drown and die.

Mix the seeds into the substrate, making sure that their is enough volume of 
material to keep the seeds separated. Place the seed mixture into a clear plastic 
bag (freezer bags, especially zip-lock bags are very useful for this -provided a 
little gap is left in the seal for air exchange) If it is not a zip-lock type 
bag it needs to be loosely tied.

Write the date on the bag so that you know when the pre-treatment was started.

First the mixed seeds need to placed somewhere warm at around 20 Celsius for 
at least 17 weeks. Make sure that the seed and compost mixture does not dry 
out or the pre treatment will be ineffective.

Next the seeds are required to undergo a cold period to break the final part of 
the dormancy, this is easily achieved by placing the bag of seeds and compost 
in the fridge at (4 Celsius or 39F) for another 17 weeks minimum.

When the dormancy has broken it is quite possible for the seeds to germinate 
in the bag at these temperatures when they are ready to do so, if they do, just 
remove them from the bag and carefully plant them up.

When the period of pre-treatment has finished the seed should be ready to be planted. 
Small quantities can be sown in pots or seed trays filled with a good quality compost 
and cover them with a thin layer of compost no more than 1 cm deep. For larger 
quantities it is easiest to sow the seeds in a well prepared seedbed outdoors once the 
warm and cold pre-treatments have finished and wait for the seedlings to appear.

It has also been found that fluctuating pre-treatment temperatures can give the best 
germination results and I have myself had excellent results by keeping the mixed seeds 
in a cold shed through the winter for the cold stage of their pre-treatment and allowing 
the temperature to fluctuate naturally. Ungerminated seeds can have the whole warm and 
cold process repeated again to enable more seeds to germinate.

Do not expose newly sown seeds to high temperatures (above 25 Celsius). Keep the seedlings 
well watered and weed free.

Growth in the first year is usually between 10 and 40 cm depending on the time of germination 
and cultural techniques and developing seedlings are usually trouble free. Allow them to grow 
for 1 or 2 years before planting them in a permanent position