Do any of you grow Autumn Blaze Maple or Silver Maple trees? A little store in town has them on 1/2 price sale, and I'm thinking of getting them. They have two large Autumn Blaze on sale for $24, and a smaller Silver Maple for $13.50. Even the smaller one is kind of tall, maybe 10 feet, and the other two are at least 15 feet tall. They look healthy too, and the price is great. I read that Silver Maple does good in clay, which I'm pretty sure we have more than enough of. Just not sure about the Autumn Blaze in clay. I'd like to know if they are fast growing too, as I need some shade soon!

Hi, Natalie, glad you made it to Idaho and hope the move was a smooth one. About those silver maples, I suggest you do a computer search and that should give you all the info you need. I just wanted to let you know that my mom had two silver maples in her front yard. Yes, they did shade the area, but the root system is terrible if you plan to grow anything around them. My mother had two planter boxes on the front of the house, and the maple roots totally invaded them. It was awful. We would periodically go in there and try to clean them out, but it was so hard. It was like pulling out netting. We could not plant anything in the front yard because of those roots. So read up on this and make an informed decision. Hope this helps you.

Hi Avedon! We still have a few boxes to unpack, but are in no hurry. We absolutely LOVE it here!

I did end up doing some research online, and passed up both trees. The silver maple sounded great, but like you mentioned, the roots can be a nightmare. I don't want to deal with that! I met a couple of people in town that have the other one, and they said it wasn't all that great of a tree, and there are much better maples. So, the search continues! I think we'll get some Aspens next spring, and plant them where they can spread, away from the house. They seem to do really good here. I really want to get a river birch or two as well. We had one at our house in Utah, and it was really nice. Some of the roots were shallow on ours, but it got watered a lot. I think if they get less water, the roots will go deeper.

Thanks for the input on the tree! I really appreciate it!

Hi Natalie, how's your search going? There are lots of Maples around here. Silver, Sugar, Japanese,.... All have aggressive shallow root systems. I'm not really aware of many deciduous trees that don't. I've had luck with a few dryish shade plants, so far. Lily of the Valley, pachysandra, violets...solomon seal does fairly well. There are few other ground covers I keep forgetting to get ID'd too. Silver Maples are pretty fast growing.

Hi Evan, The plant search has gone well, and I've ordered too many different seeds to count! Still trying to figure out the tree issue, but I have until fall or next spring to worry about that!

I have more than enough ground covers here, and most are ones I haven't seen before, so it's nice having them! I've gotten an ID on most, but haven't worked on the rest yet. I had to laugh over you mentioning Lily of the Valley. It was one of my nightmare plants at the last house. I had to completely fence in my flower beds because of it, just to keep the dogs out when they were puppies, and putting everything in their mouths. That plant is very toxic to dogs. Not that others in the garden weren't, but I was never successful at getting rid of it. No amount of digging, or roundup, made a dent in it! I loved it though!

I'm glad your tree and plant search is going well. I guess I'm far enough north that LOV behaves. I've read where other gardeners have the same problems you described.

Of all the plants I've ever had, that one has been the biggest nightmare for me. I'm glad that I don't have any at the new house! I do wish that some other plants would behave badly like it did! Ones that aren't toxic to dogs, anyway!