There are many reasons to grow maple trees in Florida. It’s a place where maples (Acer) can be found growing in the wild of Mother Nature and among the manicured landscapes of suburbia.
Several kinds of maples are native to Florida, giving backyard gardeners like me and perhaps you, too, many options.
Native Florida maples are one of my favorite kinds of trees. My wife and I love growing maples in our Central Florida landscape because they enhance our yard in so many ways.
Benefits Of Growing Maple Trees In Florida
I don’t think I need to convince too many people that growing trees is, in general, a pretty good thing to do. For example, they convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. They provide food and shelter for so many creatures. And they beautify our world in ways that we can’t count. Among trees, maples are certainly one of Mother Nature’s greatest gifts to humankind, too.
If you want to grow maple trees in Florida, you’re in pretty good shape. There are five species of maples that are native to Florida, meaning they’re safe to grow there and are non-invasive.
These native Florida maples are:
- Boxelder (Acer negundo)
- Red maple (Acer rubrum)
- Silver maple (Acer saccharinum)
- Florida maple (Acer saccharinum [subspecies floridanum])
- Chalk maple (Acer saccharum [subspecies leucoderme])
Take your pick, as any of the five native Florida maples will provide a wealth of benefits, including:
Giving Your Yard More Shade
If you’re looking to shade your yard, you can’t do much better than planting a maple. The mature size of a maple depends both on the kind you plant and its growing conditions. Many maples grow anywhere from 50 feet to 100 feet tall and 30 feet to 40 feet wide. Mind you, some top out shorter than that and others reach both taller and wider dimensions.
You should consider the size of your yard and site conditions before picking just any maple tree at your local garden nursery. But if you choose wisely, you’ll end up with a gorgeous shade tree that can help lower your cooling bills in the summer (which is a very important consideration for those who live in the Sunbelt States — like Florida!).
Attracting Pollinators & Other Beneficial Species
One of the great things about maple trees is that pollinators and other beneficial creatures just love them. For example, bees and butterflies feed from the flowers that emit lovely nectar. Birds enjoy the seeds that later emerge each season, and they’ll nest in the canopy. Squirrels and other small woodland creatures also love taking up residence in maples.
If you grow a maple tree in your Florida landscape you’re helping to enrich the ecosystem in your yard. Furthermore, the enhancements you make in your landscape can have positive ripple effect throughout your neighborhood and beyond. It goes back to the old saying, “think global, act local.”
Providing Fall Color In Florida
One of the biggest reasons maples are so popular with many Floridians is that these trees can provide autumn color even in the Sunshine State. This may surprise some folks who think the southern border of fall color stops at the Florida state line. Yet many of the state’s native deciduous trees provide shades of autumn color in October, November, and December. And maple is one of those trees.
Maples can turn a variety of colors, including yellow, orange, purple, and red. If your tree’s growing conditions are right, your maple will sport gorgeous autumn hues. The best maple fall color is seen in Central and Northern Florida, where cool nights and warm days help trigger the chemical processes in the leaves that make them turn colors. But even in South Florida, maples can show off some muted autumnal hues in the winter months of December and into January.
Tips For Growing Maple Trees In Florida
As with any tree, you want to make sure that you plant your maple correctly. I’ve shared tree planting tips before elsewhere here on the Hortiwriter site. So, I’ll refer you to that article for more details on planting trees correctly.
But there are specific things you need to know about how to grow maple trees in Florida yards. So, I reached out to Hannah Eason, a commercial horticulture extension agent at University of Florida Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences (UF/IFAS).
She says that while wild maples in Florida generally indicate “seasonally wet site[s],” they can also adapt well to wet or well-drained soil in landscapes. “While they can handle full sun, again, looking to where the maple has adapted and evolved in swampy areas, it thrives among partial shade where the delicate bark is protected from sun scald,” Eason advises.
She also remarks that maples have shallow root systems. “The shallow root system needs to be protected from mower damage. Mulch or having other plants around the base can protect those roots.” For this reason, she also explains the importance of keeping maples away from obstacles that could inhibit their root spread. “Ensure the tree has enough space if planted near sidewalks,” she notes.
Going back to an earlier point, maple trees provide fall color because they’re deciduous trees. That is, they drop their leaves in the fall and grow new ones in the spring. Eason says, “Because [maples] are deciduous, copious leaves will fall, which, depending on who you ask, can be considered an issue.” In other words, think twice before planting a maple if you don’t find any charm or fun in raking up big piles of leaves each autumn.
Can You Make Maple Syrup In Florida?
There are few things I love more than New England maple syrup. I always have a bottle of this special sugary treat in my refrigerator and drizzle it on my toaster waffles. But I’ve wondered if you could produce maple syrup in Florida. After all, you can grow maple trees there. Surely you could make maple syrup in Florida, too, right?
While I had the opportunity to glean some knowledge from Eason I couldn’t resist asking. “Technically, all maple trees produce sugary sap,” she says. “Florida’s favorite maple, the red maple (Acer rubrum), is not commercially cultivated for maple syrup, which typically comes from Acer saccharum. It does grow in Florida, but it does not thrive here.”
Of course, the entrepreneur in me wonders if there’s room — or any commercial viability — for starting a business as a Florida maple syrup magnate. Maybe my wife and I could grow sugar maple trees in Florida up in the hinterlands of the Panhandle. We’d become sugarmakers with a sugarbush and wait for the run each fall using evaporators and other sugarshack equipment to turn the maple sap into delicious Florida maple syrup.
Oh, the possibilities…
Or, maybe we’re a few states too far south for that after all… I don’t know.
What I do know is that maple trees may not be all that great for making Grade A Florida syrup, but they surely look great in the yard winter, spring, summer, and fall!