Over the weekend I planted an ‘October Glory’ maple tree. I chose this tree as one of my first fall plantings of 2025 for a several reasons. One of those reasons was a little sentimental. You see when my wife and I bought our first home an ‘October Glory’ was the first tree we planted there. We wanted a nice shade tree that had brilliant fall color and ‘October Glory’ matched that description.
‘October Glory’ is botanically Acer rubrum which makes it a type of red maple. It’s actually a female tree which will potenitally produce samaras (Samaras are the helicopter like seeds that you probably played with when you were a kid, or maybe you still do like me ;)). In the early spring you will see beautiful red flowers. The flowers themselves are very small and grouped in clusters. Red maples are a great early spring source of pollen for our pollinators.
One of the main reasons I chose ‘October Glory’ was for the long lasting orange red fall foliage. It tends to hold it’s leaves longer than other varities. Maples aren’t small trees but if you have 40-50 feet of space you have a spot for this red maple. It grows about 50 ft tall as well making it a nice balanced shaped maple tree.
The Seeds – Samaras
Since it does create samaras you may find yourself with volunteer seedlings. The samaras are a great food source for wildlife including birds like chickadees,titmice, finches, and sparrows. I dug a couple of volunteer maples from our old house and brought them to our new home. I’m curious to see how they will perform over the years. It’s kind of neat to have that continuity from one home to the next with the garden.
Fast Growing
Red maples are fairly fast growing trees and couple put on as much as 2 to 3 feet per year depending on growing conditions. They make excellent shade trees and wind breaks. Their leaves are typically 5 lobed leaves and have some serration on the edges. Below you can see the leaves of the ‘October Glory’ maple. On the left is the top of the leaves and the right is the underside.
How to Plant a Tree
I’ve lost count over how many trees I’ve planted over the years. I’ve planted Maples, cherry trees, ginkgo trees, and many more and the process for each of them is basically the same.
- Prepare the hole. I dig a hole a little larger than the pot the tree came in and just slightly deeper. It doesn’t need to be twice the size of the pot as some say. The roots need to grow into the exisiting soil.
- Scuff the sides of the hole with the shovel. I’ll typically stab the tip of the shovel into the sides of the hole in order to rough it up a little. This gives the roots openings into the existing soil.
- Place the tree in the hole so that the crown of the root system is at soil level after you back fill.
- Water before filling with soil. I think a lot of people don’t water until after everything is planted. By watering before you backfill you make sure that the rootball is saturated and that the surrounding soil is also wet.
- Backfill with the soil you removed. I don’t add compost or amendment soil, just the existing soil from that location. By amending the soil at this stage you create a very rich soil area around the tree which will ecourage the roots to grow right there and not stretch beyond the hole. We want the roots or the tree to extend in the surrounding soil and if the soil in the hole is too rich they will not spread out like we want.
- Then I water the tree again to make sure the backfilled soil compacts. You want to eliminate air pockets by a combination of tamping down the soil and watering.
- A layer of mulch comes next. I used a wheel barrow load of bark chips I’ve had lying around since last fall. I kept them to no more than 2 inches and spread them out around the tee. Always make sure that the mulch doesn’t rest up at the base of the tree. Mulch should be spread so it doesn’t create a volcano shape around the tree.
- I watered the tree again to make sure the mulch was moist.
- Because we have deer and it’s almost fall I protected the trunk of the tree with a piece of wire fencing. Deer will rub against trees to scrape the fuzz off of their antlers. The fencing will stop that from happening. It can be removed in the spring and put back around your trees in the fall. Some of the first few trees I planted after buying our old house were fataly damaged by deer. They rubbed the bark off so much that the tree girdled and couldn’t be saved. If you value your tree you have to protect them!
- The tree needs to be watered every few days unless you get a good rain. Light rains won’t satuarate the soil enough so even if you get rain you may need to water. If you stick your finger into the soil under the mulch and the soil is dry to the touch its time to water.
- If you choose to amend the soil I recommend amending outside of the hole area first. That will encourage the roots to grow toward the amended area. After the first year amend or fertilize outside of the drip line of the tree to continue encouraging a larger root system. The drip line is the outside edge of the leaf canopy.
Growing Requirements for ‘October Glory’ Maple Trees
| Feature | Growing Requirements |
|---|---|
| USDA Hardiness Zones | 4 to 9 |
| Mature Size | 40-50 ft tall, 30-40 ft wide |
| Sunlight | Full sun to partial shade |
| Soil | Average soil. Moist, well-drained; tolerates a wide range of soils. Likes a slightly acidic soil. |
| Water Needs | Moderate |
| Foliage | Green Leaves with serrated edge, fall color orange to red. |
| Flowers | Small red flowers in clusters, early spring |
| Fruit | Samaras – winged helicopter like seeds |
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