Maple Canadian originates from North America and is a powerful tree that lives up to four hundred years and has such valuable qualities as solid wood, sweet juice and an attractive appearance. Therefore, today it is more and more in demand in Europe, it decorates parks, squares and household plots.
Botanical description
Canadian maple, it is sugar, is a powerful deciduous tree, sometimes reaching forty meters in height, with a trunk almost a meter in diameter and a very thick and picturesque crown, which is not the case for the cracked brown-gray bark. 
But the branches of the maple are beautiful: they have a pleasant reddish tint and shine. And the main decoration of this tree is its leaves. They have intricate cuts, are not very large, reach lengths of up to 11 centimeters and approximately the same width, in summer they are painted in a dark green color scheme, which in the autumn will be transformed into fantastic red, orange and yellow tones.
But the small yellow-green maple flowers collected in clusters are rather inexpressive. They are on some trees female, and on others - male. True, sometimes there are bisexual specimens of Canadian maple. 
Seeds of this tree are supplied with wings. Combined in pairs, they form a so-called lionfish, which, spinning in the air, flies remarkably, taking the seeds away from the parent tree. 
Sugar maple belongs to long-lived trees, whose age can reach four centuries. But unlike other long-livers such as oak, it grows quickly.
Did you know? In addition to the well-known romance on the Yesenin's lines “You are my maple fallen”, many more popular songs have been created in Russian, the lyrics of which contain the name of the tree.
Growing area
This tree grows everywhere in the eastern United States and Canada. The Canadian maple has taken root well in the Old World, and in some regions of Asia. 
The distribution of sugar maple in North America
Maple species
Currently, there are several decorative forms and varieties of sugar maple:
- large gear maple;
Acer saccharum subsp. grandidentatum - 'Monumentale' - column-like variety, branches directed upwards;
Monumentale - 'September Flare';
September Flare - 'Green Mountain' - winter-hardy variety with oval, heat-resistant crown;
Green mountain - Sweet Shadow - a variety with "lace" foliage.
Acer saccharum subsp. grandidentatum
Monumentale
September Flare
Green mountain
Sweet shadowIn addition to sugar maple, several other species of this tree are common - red and silver.
Learn more about other species of maple: Tatar, ash-leaved, Japanese, Ginnala, Manchurian, Norway (varieties, cultivation).
Red maple
This type of maple is one of the most commonly found deciduous trees in eastern North America and stands out among the others with a pronounced reddish tone of leaves that become even brighter and more beautiful in the fall. Red maple is slightly lower than sugar growth, but it has a wider trunk, reaching 1.6 meters in diameter. The leaves, with the exception of color, resemble maple leaves and size and shape.
This woody plant also lives long enough and grows very quickly, acquiring a dense crown in the form of a pyramid or ellipse. Unlike sugar, red maple is less demanding on the quality of the soil, it grows equally well on swampy and arid soils. 
Silver Maple
This tall tree, reaching a height of forty meters, is common not only in North America, but also in Europe, being distinguished by a noble silvery shade on the back side of dark green leaves and velvety to the touch surface. Thanks to an impressive crown, shimmering silver, this silver "Canadian" is very actively used in the landscape design of parks and gardens. 
Natural meaning
Sugar maple, capable of producing sweet juice and possessing other valuable qualities, is very much in demand by representatives of the animal world. Its branches and leaves are good food for deer, hares and elks. And proteins, in addition to this feed, add maple buds and seeds to their menu. In America, the inexpressive-looking, but obviously, nutritious bark of a tree is readily consumed by porcupines. And in a dense and sprawling maple crown many birds actively build their nests.
Did you know? To make a popular maple leaf snack in Japan, they should be kept in containers with salt for a year, and only then covered with sweet dough and fried in oil.
Using
A man, admiring the appearance of this beautiful plant, long ago learned to extract from it and practical use:
- Maple wood is notable for its excellent hardness, often surpassing the famous oak in it. It produces the best parquet, which, in addition to its exceptional resistance to mechanical stress, has an attractive texture and lends itself well to varnishing.
- Wood is also actively used in the manufacture of furniture, single-layer plywood and wall cladding panels. It has long been indispensable in the production of such specific things as billiard cues, bowling pins and weapon butts.
- Solid and dense wood has been in demand among manufacturers of expensive musical string instruments that use it along with the famous resonant spruce.
- In the spring before the leaves and flowers bloom, the trunk is incised and the maple sap is collected just as we collect birch. The only difference is that maple sap is much sweeter than birch. Therefore, they make syrup, sugar and other sweets.
- And thanks to outstanding external data in the form of a thick spreading crown of noble green tonality in the summer and a surprisingly beautiful red-orange-yellow palette in the fall, Canadian maple is widely represented in parks, gardens and adorns the alleys.
Read also about the use of maple in traditional medicine.
Maple syrup
Growing conditions
He loves Canadian sugar to grow in full sun, but is able to tolerate light penumbra. He is very picky about soil quality, prefers well-drained and humus-rich soils. Able to withstand temperatures down to -40 degrees, but very afraid of strong winds, icing and hail.
Find out which flowers and other plants love to grow in a sunny location.
How to plant in the garden
Most often for planting Canadian maple annual saplings are used. They are grown from seeds indoors. The seedlings that have reached one year old are planted in containers filled with fertile and well-loosened soil. Saplings growing in containers should be watered and fed with complex fertilizers.
The accumulated and well-developed tree can then be transplanted into open ground. The best time for this is early spring or late September.
Important! To give the seedlings the opportunity to get used to the open ground, they should be hardened outside the room before transplanting.
At first, the trees are carried out to fresh air just for a couple of minutes, each time slightly increasing the time of the “walk”.
When choosing a place to plant, you must remember that this is a woody plant. prefers an abundance of light, although it is not afraid of a small shading, it does not tolerate strong winds, therefore windy elevations are not suitable for it. 
Immediately before planting, pits are dug up half a meter in length and width, the same depth in which trees are planted so that the trunk hides under the ground a maximum of five centimeters deep. Planted trees should be watered well, spending at least 15 liters of water for each seedling.
Summer seedlings enough water twice a week.
Before planting, one should not forget that the future tree will have a spreading crown, therefore it is recommended to leave a free five-meter space between young trees.
Check out a list of popular ornamental trees for the garden.
Care Tips
Although this tree species is hardy, still young seedlings for the winter should be warmedso as not to freeze the roots.
If the tree is planted in fertile soil, then at first this will be enough for its normal development. But then in the spring it is recommended to feed the tree with superphosphate, urea and potassium salts. Every year in spring around the tree it is necessary to carry out soil mulching with peat. 
These trees love moist soil, but do not tolerate stagnant water in the soil, causing them to rot roots.
Find out how trees can get sick.
It is important for this type of tree pruning, which has some features. For example, a maple very poorly tolerates any kind of pruning after the foliage.
In all other cases, pruning helps to form the crown of a tree, removes dried and diseased branches, helps to form new shoots from middle-aged trees. As a rule, when pruning a tree, about 40 percent of last year’s growth of the branches is removed.
Important! It is extremely undesirable to carry out pruning in early spring due to increased sap flow, which as a result can lead to sad consequences, the death of the tree.
The “Canadian Guest” feels more and more confident that he is the master in our gardens, parks and private plots. Its excellent appearance, ennobling landscaping, as well as high gastronomic qualities of the juice make the tree more and more popular both among urban gardeners and among owners of summer cottages.
