whaas, I would be just a bit leery of John Pair in your area. Not because of color change but because it is a Sugar Maple adapted to a drier and much hotter climate than you have. It originates from the Caddo ecotype which was found in a small canyon west of Oklahoma City Oklahoma. However, if you are considering Sugar Maples as well, I have a couple of suggestions that are rather red in color. 'Bonfire' is supposed to have a very consistent reddish fall color. It also appears to be the fastest growing Sugar Maple around. Also 'Wright Brothers' is supposed to be much redder as well. As for the freeman maples, got to go back to Autumn Fantasy again. Spectacular and consistant!!! I realize these probable get bigger than you are looking for, but consider this. How long are you going to be there? The next person may just hate whatever you plant and cut much or all of it down. Even if that does not happen, your talking many many many years before they begin competing, and mostly trees grow much more closely in the native habitats that the ideal maximum size anyway. In short, IMHO don't plant trees 2-5' apart, but 15-20' will be fine as long as they are not that close to another tree on more than 2 sides. Arktrees

The similarity is only in the bark color - and that is really most noticeable in winter anyway, when the tree is out of leaf. Otherwise rufinerve will get much larger and has rather "unmaple"-looking foliage, typically three lobed but sometimes as much as five. Have not seen fall color on 'Bihou' but rufinerves in general get very nice fall color. Personally I am not all that knocked out by 'Bihou' but that's just me :-) Japanese maples in our area are a dime a dozen.......I'd go with something a little less expected myself, like the 'Winter Gold'.

Grisuem and Bloodgood in my zone in sun do fine once established. Bloodgood may leaf scorch in the first year or two, but once its established and if on an irrigation system - it generally won't scorch. It will however turn a bit more green/bronze but not quite scorched. This particular location has afternoon sun but almost no sun in the morning as the house shades it. The preference for these two would be morning sun, but I do know that they can handle afternoon sun if watered well. Eventhough they are both very different in looks, I'm ok with either in that location. More interested in trying to get to about 20+' in height in some amount of time. I'd really like to put a beech purporea tri-color there, but that definitely won't take the full sun in my zone and that probably grows just as slow. I'm curious as to how fast Griseum and Bloodgood grows if pruned for vertical growth rather just let to grow wide. I have a griseum that was planted last year and it put on close to 2ft (from 6 t 8ft) and caliper went from 1.5 to 2.5in. It was kind of shocking to me as I was figuring 6in to 1ft at most and minimal caliper growth. I don't know how long it will sustain this type of growth, but thicker caliper is usually a very good sign in trees. Pruning for vertical growth seems to help a lot of trees grow vertical (especially bloodgood, crape myrtles, prunus species, etc ). I know if you let Bloodgood has its way, it'll be 6ft in 5 years, but if you stake and prune it to go vertical, it can easily reach 12ft in 5 years. the question is what does it look like after 12ft ? Too many bloodgoods(and griseum) don't have vertical leaders. . So, if anybody has any data on how fast(or slow) their bloodgood or griseum, it would be greatly appreciated.

Plant list: (divided to give you an idea of inventory) ANDREW'S GREENHOUSE: Hydrangea "Anomala Petiolaris" (climbing hydrangea) Schizophragma "Moonlight" (japanese false hydrangea) Astilbe "Dunkellachs" Anemone "Honorine Jobert" Miscanthus "Morning Light" Carex "Evergold" Tricyrtis "Lightning Strike" Euphorbia "Helena's Blush" Lonicera "Harlequin" Lavender "Provence" Alternanthera "red threads" ACER GARDENS: Rose "Pat Austin" Rose "Julia Child" Plox "Rubymine" Juncus Effusus "big twister" Rheingold Arbovitae Hakonechloa Macra "Aureola" Oriental lily "Casa Blanca" Daphne "Carol Mackie" Boulevard Cypress Pennistamen "Karley Rose" Amsonia Hubrichtii oriental lily "Tom Pouce" TOWER FARMS: Juncus "Quartz Creek" BAY STATE PERENNIALS: Japanese Burnet Tamarix "Pink Cascade"