Larry,

You need to supply us with the cultivar name so we can better help
you. In general there are several reasons "red" maples will turn
green.

1. Some green maples actually have red spring colors and then fade to
their normal green after a week or two. Shindeshojo and Bonfire are
two green Japanese maples that leaf out red in the spring and fade to
green later.

2. Too much shade. Cultivars like Bloodgood need some direct sunlight
in order to look their best. I'd say at least somewhere between 4 to 6
hours of preferably morning light, but afternoon light is okay too
depending on your location. Unfortunately the Bloodgood cultivar has
been diluted, meaning most, if not all, are not true genetic copies of
the parent plant. Because of this they may exhibit more greening than
the true Bloodgood. Also, it's natural for Bloodgood types to go
bronze green (red with a greenish undercast) in certain locations.

3. Too much nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen stimulates vegetative
growth, but it also causes plants to green up. That's why lawn ferts
have relatively high nitrogen numbers so the lawn looks nice and
green. Nitrogen on maples can also cause them to green up. On maples
that have variegation you should supply only minimal amounts of
nitrogen to keep the plant healthy, but too much and the tree can lose
it's variegation character and put out all green leaves.

Hope this helps,

Layne

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 08:13:18 GMT, "Larry"
wrote:

My newly planted Japanese maple tree was crimson red when I bought it, but
now has gone green. Everything I read said they do better in shade, so that
is where I planted it. It does get an hour or so of direct sun per day. Now
I read in places that it gets green when its in shade! Is this just a phase
of growth for warm temps? Or is it solely do to the shade? Any advice
appreciated.

Larry