Top 5 Japanese Maples For Small Gardens

Hey y’all, welcome to the Mr Maple Show! I’m Tim, and today we’re diving into my top five Japanese maples that are perfect for small gardens. Japanese maples bring stunning beauty year-round, with vibrant spring and fall colors, and compact, non-invasive growth habits.

📌 Today’s Picks:
5️⃣ ‘Viridis’ (Waterfall) – A graceful green weeping lace leaf.
4️⃣ ‘Orangeola’ – Cascading habit with ever-changing orange-red hues.
3️⃣ ‘Sango Kaku’ (Coral Bark) – Bright red bark for year-round interest.
2️⃣ ‘Bloodgood’ – Classic red upright with vibrant fall color.
1️⃣ ‘Crimson Queen’ – Horizontal weeping habit with stunning crimson fall foliage.

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hey y’all and welcome to the Mr Maple show I’m Tim and today I’m bringing you the top five Japanese maples for small gardens guys if you love Japanese maples and you love gardening make sure you’re subscribed here on the Mr Maples show we put out daily content all about Japanese maples and gardening you’re going to share this with your gardening friends and guys also check us out on your favorite podcast platform with the Mr Maple show there as well you can plug us in your ears and work in your garden at the same time listen to some cool things about Japanese maples now guys the five Japanese maples for small gardens Japanese maples are perfect for small gardens because they’re small to midsize trees they’ve got shalling on invasive root systems they fit in so many spaces and there’s thousands of varieties to choose from and variey is the flavor of life that’s one of the things about Japanese maples I love the most they’re so beautiful they give good spring interest they give good fall interest Japanese maples fit so well in small gardens coming at number five for top Japanese maples for small gardens I have verus this is a green weeping lace Leaf also known as waterfall it’s got this nice cascading umbrella habit it’s got Green Lace leaves for it and it just has this graceful Habit in the garden JD verri who wrote the book on Japanese maple said plant this tree up on a hill so you can accentuate the shape and look up into the branches and the structure of this lacea that’s an excellent way to do it but it’s also an easy tree to grow in a container and Japanese maples do phenomenal in containers and verus is no exception it’s beautiful it’s got that gorgeous cascading habit and you can and you can send your garden to many other places around your yard this is such a beautiful Green Lace Leaf it gives you that summery feel throughout the spring the summer and when the fall Hits you get some really nice shades of yellows infused with oranges together with that dissectum lace leaf leaf you get a soft feel that’s really beautiful in the landscape and a green tree for what people think of when I think of a Japanese maple now I love verus because you can actually put that tree up with against dark background where a red lace Leaf may get lost that green verius is going to add a lot of contrast and be extremely beautiful in your garden I mean it just really gives great contrast against some dark blacks some Browns where some of those deep Maroons might get lost so verus coming at number five that’s my number five pick my number four pick for top Japanese maples for small gardens is orola this is a newer selection introduced in the 1980s by happy Hollows nursery and it has this heavily cascading habit but it gives you a multitude of red colors you get some bright orange Reds in the early spring on the new growth maturing to Maroons maturing to Green Reds and then maturing to uh greens behind that and then orange red New Growth keeps coming across it people often say you get 20 23 different shades of red with orangeola with all the new growth and the color changes and color changes what people love about Japanese maples you have changes between the spring summer and the fall and orangeola is constantly changing in the fall orangeola goes to a bright orange red this is a tree that end up getting about 4T in height by about 5 to 6t in width with a heavily cascading habit that verus I talked about earlier has a nice arching cascading habit orola is straight pendula so you often want to stake this tree up to really have this tree have a really nice cascading form it is a beautiful beautiful selection that is becoming one of the most popular trees in the nursery trade today for me orangeola it’s easy to grow it’s very heat tolent it grows in so many places in the garden and it’s so easy to use because you know what it’s going to do it’s going to have that heavily cascading habit and it has those beautiful lace leaf dissectum leaves that we’re talking about with verus as well it adds that graceful feel to the Garden adds some great colors in the spring the summer and the fall my favorite time with orangeola is possibly Midsummer when you have those orange red new growths coming across on top of those green red colors it is really showy and dynamic and oranga has often become one of the trees when people have one in their garden and say they moved to a new location so maybe they have got 10 different varieties of Japanese maples and move to a new location the first tree they replace is orangelo because it’s quickly one of their favorite selections this is a tree that you’re going to grow to love and guys coming at number four orange Jolo my number three pick for top Japanese maples for small gardens is sanguk Kaku this is the coral bark Japanese maple it is a green upright that when the leaves drop after the fall color you have coral bark that gives you Red winter interest and that just gives you those Four Seasons where you got something Lively in the spring you’ve got something during the summer you’ve got something during the fall some yellow fall color heavily underrated for its fall color and then that bark that just gives great color contrast and something Lively in that Winter Garden when you have that coral bark out there it just brightens up that Winter Garden gives you an interest when many other deciduous trees have dropped their leaves completely now sanguk Kaku has a typical Green palatum Leaf very small almost like what you’d find on Japanese maples growing in the wild in Japan but that bark just makes this tree exceptional and beautiful now we often do top lists here on the Mr Maple show and one of our things is best fall color and zangu Kaku ranks really high on that list because it gives a consistent and clear yellow fall color that can really add a lot to the landscape we recently did a walk through at Gibbs Gardens if you go check that out and you can see sangu Kaku in yellow fall color just rocking it out I mean it’s just amazing it’s one of the most electric yellow fall colors of any of the Japanese maples and it provides good color contrast in the fall with many of the other selections because of that because many of the other selections are going to be going to oranges and reds and sanguk Kaku go to that clear yellow with that nice upright form it’s extremely beautiful sanguk Kaku will typically reach about 12T in height in 10 years making it a great midsize tree for the landscape and Garden it is extremely beautiful easy to use now one great tip for when you’re growing sanguk Kaku the coral bark Japanese maple is to give it a backdrop if you plant this tree somewhere maybe out in the open you’re not going to get the same effect of the coral bark as if you give it a backdrop now a backdrop could simp be you’re planting it near a house where you have a dark colored background that can the bark can really pop off of another easy way to give a coral bark Japanese maple the sanguk Kaku uh that Dynamic contrast is to really plant an evergreen behind it that Evergreen as it goes larger will give you some of that nice green color in the background for that red coral bark to pop off during the winter time y’all the corbar japanes maples beautiful giving you a season interest year round it is an amazing tree for small gardens come remember at number two for my top japanes Maples for small gardens it’s a classic but it’s a good one it’s atra pomum blood good this is a red Japanese maple that many people have in their landscape and Garden it is so beautiful and easy to use it’s your traditional red upright with red leaves now there are many different forms of blood good sold in the nursery trade today the original blood good is extremely beautiful and has phenomenal fall color typically reaching about 10 to 12 ft in height in 10 years make a good midsize tree in the landscape this is a tree that does great as a focal point planting in the garden and can really give you that larger red leaf on an upright tree and some good maroon color in the spring and the summer and some exceptional bright orange red to Red fall color blood good was named by a blood good nurseries it’s the guy’s last name Bloodgood who found and introduced this selection and it has become a classic in the nursery grade it’s easy to grow it’s extremely beautiful and it’s probably one of the most popular trees in the world and one of the most popular trees in America for sure because you find this tree in the landscape so frequently now A True Blood good is a grafted uh specimen ceiling from it may show some variability and shouldn’t be called blood good I want to make sure that’s noted because whenever you buy a Japanese maple blood good from mrmaple.com you get a true grafted blood good and it is a beautiful tree in the garden it can handle some sun it can handle some cold y’all it is an exceptional and easy tree to grow and many collectors think oh it’s a blood good y’all it’s one of the most beautiful trees and that’s the reason it’s so popular you got that red color that just rocks it out in the spring in the summer it may green up a little bit during the summer late summer before it really goes to vibrant red colors in the fall for a red upright Japanese maple blood good is a classic and it’s one of the most popular for the reason that is simply beautiful and easy to grow grow makes a perfect specimen for that focal point planning or to give good color contrast in a green landscape it is easy to use and great for small gardens coming at number one for one of those beautiful and easy to grow trees for the garden for the small garden you’ve got that small space you’re looking for is Crimson Queen Crimson Queen is a lace Leaf red Japanese maple that has that dissectum and cascading habit it is extremely beautiful one of the reasons I like Crimson Queen is it has a very horizontal habit and it stays shorter than many of the other selections like ukama an obari and Garnet and it has a lot of horizontal weeping Habit to it so it stays low and makes a really nice cascading habit that doesn’t get a lot of height so it doesn’t obstruct a lot of views it’s a little bit more picked up red in the early spring you can go to a green red uh during the summer if planted in full sun but it does hold its red more picked up red color better in the shade than in light shaded situation than many of the other red Japanese maples that are Weeping it is extremely beautiful easy to grow and in the fall it turns to a bright crimson where it gets its name of crimson Queen because it is the queen of fall with that crimson color crimson Queen is easy to grow 3T in height by about 6 to 7 foot in width in 10 years making it easy tree for the small gardens another great container plant if you’re growing a tree container always make sure you good give good drainage and that’s true trees in the ground as well Crimson Queen is a beautiful exceptionally beautiful tree that makes a great tree right underneath that window that you’re always looking for something to go underneath that window it’s not going to obstruct your view the Crimson Queen will give you that bright red color as often used a foundational planning or a specimen planning where it’s that focal point in the garden and Landscape Crimson Queen is one of the most popular trees in the nursery trade today and I think it’s that got because it has that beautiful name that it describes exactly what it does fall color crimson fall color easy to grow beautiful nice cascad and weeping habit it’s an amazing tree for that small garden and it was actually a selection that was introduced by our friends the forcades the vades have introduced many amazing Japanese maples and conifers y’all Crimson Queen that’s my number one pick for small gardens hope you enjoyed today’s video on my top five Japanese maples for small gardens there’s some Classics in there but there’s some good ones too if you don’t have some of these you can check them out on maple.com and we appreciate yall support y’all take care God bless and have a great day