Red Maple Sun Valley Update - Fall 2018

Back on Earth Day of this year, we planted a few trees including this Red Maple "Sun Valley" tree that is maybe 3/4" caliper.  Here's the photo of that tree when it went in - before it leafed out this Spring/Summer.  By June, it had leafed out and grew a bit - topping out at 96" tall in our tree inventory.  The top continued to grow up and now I am thinking it is taller than 96".  But it also is starting to show it's fall colors.  If you look closely at this photo above that I took a few weeks back, you'll see some reds/oranges starting to emerge on the leaves.  This Fall has been funny with leaves - as we didn't get a ton of colors (yet?), but plenty of leaves have fallen.  I'll keep an eye on this one and see if it shows off it's full fall spendor with a red/orange show.  More importantly, I'm thinking that this thing as established itself enough with some new branching that it has a good shot at surviving the winter and coming back next Spring.

Here's what it looks like today.  Spectacular.  Small.  But spectacular.

In looking around at the rest of our trees, it seems that we don't have a ton of red/orange trees on our property.  Mostly greens that turn to yellows.  So, if this Maple tree continues to grow, we'll have a nice Fall show in the very far back/middle of our yard. 

I have high hopes that this tree will grow up in the shadow(s) of a few other larger trees (like a massive Walnut one) and grow up and out to provide not just color, but also increased screening towards the back of our lot and create a nice location to play under/walk under as we continue to landscape out the back part of our yard.