HomeIt's a great place to check out. 'Fire Dragon' shantung maple is very popular tree for a good reason. It's a very easy tree to grow in full hot sun during the summer and it also provides nice red fall color. I have four 'Fire Dragon' in my yard. So far, they're doing great. I also have Skinny Dragon that has unusually narrow lobes that I once mistook it for Japanese maple. It's only around a foot tall and it will by my first year so hopefully it'll grow a lot this year. Same for Blaine's Dragon named after the owner's daughter who discovered it. So far, Blaine's Dragon is the only other shantung maple that produce consistent red fall color beside 'Fire Dragon'. I'm curious to see how all shantung maple trees turn out by fall.
I also grow shantung maples from seeds as a hobby to see what I'd come up with. I have 3 under review after two years. One has a nice leaf shape and it was planted in the ground last fall. It is around 7.5 feet tall which is pretty fast grower compared to others. 2nd one may be a dwarf. It's only 14 inches tall so I decided to plant it in the ground last fall and see if it stays small. 3rd one has also a nice leaf shape but I chose it because of brilliant summer growth color that seemed to glow in the sun. It just stood out of all. It is still in the 15g container and will try and find a spot to plant it in the fall. I also collected about 200 seeds from 'Fire Dragon' in my front yard last fall. I gave half of seeds to my brother in Houston who had very high germination rate on them. I'm just getting started on them now with weather beginning to gradually warm up. I can't wait to see what I come up with by the fall!
