Acers at Avocet in Autumn

We grow lots of different acers here in our Avocet garden, from small slow growing shrubs up to specimen trees. We grow them for the textures, patterns and colours on their stems and trunks as well as their spring and autumn colour changes. We give them extra character by pruning them to raise their canopies.

Let us now look back at this post I wrote in autumn but I am sharing it now as most leaves have dropped from the majority of our acers.

All the following acers are forms of “Acer palmatum”.

I will now share some photos looking more close up at foliage to illustrate how each has its own character.

This particular acer is really striking with its deep green leaves which turn firstly to deep red and then slowly brighter on its way to orange and yellow. It is called ‘Acer seiryu’.

To finish off looking at “Acer palmatum” here are a few more photos.

But not all of our acers are shrubs, some are smallish trees. Here are a selection of those in our garden, starting with Acer rufinerve on the left a snakebark with great spring and autumn foliage as well as colourful flowers and seed pods. The second photo shows our native acer, Field Maple or ‘Acer campestre’ and the third is a small slow-growing tree ‘Acer pectinata’ with colourful branches and buds.

Another snakebark acer is “Acer dividii ‘George Forrest’ “, a beautiful but very slow-growing tree and a fine acer to finish off this post.