What kind of maple has the brightest red leaves?

[vp999]

Can you guys please suggest some of the Japanese maple that has bright red leaves instead of the darker maroon or crimson color ones? Thanks.

 

[Rivian]

Mature summer leaves will always also have chlorophyll, which darkens them. Good luck.

 

[leatherback]

Deshojo and shindeshojo have bright red young leaves.
Throughout the season the growing parts of these trees are bright red. The rest of the tree goes a brownish-green depending on light intensity.

Bloodgold is a variety which stays purple-ish throughout the year. But not pretty growth habit.

As said before:

Mature summer leaves will always also have chlorophyll, which darkens them. Good luck.

 

[Mikecheck123]

The Vertrees book says that it's osakazuki. But note that it's pretty leggy and thus not a great bonsai candidate. Ideal fall color also depends on cold. And it doesn't get very cold where I live. Here's mine from 11-24:

 

[AlainK]

The Vertrees book says that it's osakazuki.

In Autumn, yes, but in summer they're a nice, rather light green. The problem for bonsai is that they have rather long internodes and leaves larger than the plain Acer palmatum, it's in the "amoenum group".

Mine, June 2016 and Oct. 2020 :



Actually, until recently, there was one species of Acer palmatum with 3 sub-species :
- Acer palmatum palmatum
- Acer palmatum amoenum
- Acer palmatum matsumurae

The new classification is now :
- Acer palmatum (no subspecies)
- Acer amoenum, with 3 "varieties" :
-- Acer amoenum var. amoenum
-- Acer amoenum var. matsumurae
-- Acer amoenum var. nambuanum

I think that it will take years until most people use it, except specialists.

For cultivars, the suggestion of the Maple Society is to just call them Acer 'Arakawa' or Acer 'O-sakazuki' for instance since the parentage is sometimes difficult to tell precisely because of possible hybridations.

See :

Accepted Names for the Genus Acer | The Maple Society

maplesociety.org

 

[Clicio]

Deshojo

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Red in summertime Japanese maples.

'Bloodgood' - good for larger bonsai, over a meter tall and wide, not particularly good for medium and small size bonsai.
'Whitney Red' - best summer time red according to Brent Walston, Evergreen Gardenworks, cutting grown plants available. Superior to 'Bloodgood', amendable to smaller and medium size bonsai.
'Hime Shojo' - growth habit like 'Koto Hime' but with brick red variegated leaves all summer. I have only found grafted plants, nobody seems to have cutting grown plants.
'Novum' - purple summer foliage - available as cutting grown plants from Evergreen
'Nuresagi' - a purple to black purple summer foliage maple, better for larger size bonsai, meter tall or so.

reference

Evergreen Gardenworks Catalog: Acer

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Chishio Improved has good red color in the spring and fall, and is green in the summer.

 

[MrWunderful]

Acer Ginnala “Flame” has a great fall show.

 

[AJL]

What about Acer rubrum 'Autumn Flame'and 'October Brilliance'

 

[baron]

How about a Shaina?
Red in spring, purple in summer en bright red in fall again.