Red Maple Tree

Red maple tree for sale. We ship them bare-root in November 2026, in 1 to 4 foot sizes and packs of 25, 50, 100 or 500.

How Big Red Maples Get

Plan on 40 to 60 feet tall and 30 to 50 feet wide. The tallest known red maple, near Sevierville, Tennessee, measures 143 feet. A young tree adds about a foot in its first year and up to 2 feet a year after that. Sun or part shade, zones 3 to 9.

Wet Feet and Dry Spells

Red maples grow in swamps and on dry ridges. Trees in one test spent 60 days under water and lost no leaves. Half of a season's stem growth happens in a single week. The limit is soil pH. Above 5.6, new leaves yellow between the veins by midsummer, and later fixes mostly fail.

Flowers, Seeds and Fall Color

The flowers are red and open before the leaves. Some trees are male, some female, some both, and a tree can switch. Trees as young as 4 years have set seed, and a trunk only 2 to 8 inches thick can drop 12,000 to 91,000 seeds in a season. Expect volunteers in the lawn. Fall color differs from tree to tree.

Sap, Syrup and Rhode Island

Red maple is Rhode Island's state tree. Its sap tests as sweet as sugar maple's, but the buds open early and change the flavor, so the tapping season is short. Pioneers boiled the bark for brown and black dye.

Know This Before You Buy

Horses and red maple don't mix. Wilted or dead leaves are toxic to them, so keep the trees out of paddocks and clear fallen branches after storms. The wood is soft and ice breaks it. Most roots sit in the top 10 inches of soil, though a few run out 80 feet. Burying them under 3 inches or more of sand or silt can hurt the tree. In a study of 40 species, red maple took more insect attacks than any other, at 79%.

Ordering Red Maple Trees

Bare-root trees need more water than potted ones in the first year, so keep the roots moist from the day the box arrives. Volume pricing is available on the larger packs. Our red maple tree guide has more on fall color, and you can browse other trees for sale.