Planting, Growing, and Caring for Flowering Maples
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Flowering maple, Chinese lantern, Chinese bellflower, Indian mallow, whatever you choose to call this stunning plant, it is sure to make a statement wherever it is planted! Typically grown as an annual, it is also becoming a popular houseplant! Learn how to plant, grow, and care for the flowering maple.
About Flowering Maples
Pssst! The flowering maple isn’t a maple at all! In fact, the flowering maple is a member of the mallow family, which includes hibiscus, hollyhock, okra, and rose of Sharon, and boasts similarly shaped flowers up to 3 inches in diameter that butterflies and hummingbirds love to visit. Read about more plants that attract hummingbirds.
We can thank breeders for the beauty and variety in the hundreds of cultivars: It’s a houseplant and an outdoor plant. It’s compact, at a foot or so tall, or a focal point at several feet. Its three- or five-lobe leaves can be evergreen or variegated. It bears blooms of salmon, orange, red, white, yellow, and bi-colors—in some cases, flowers appear in several colors on one plant. Some cultivars bloom in summer and fall, while some more recent hybrids bloom year-round. (Note that leaves can cause minor skin irritation on contact.)
Also known as parlor maples, flowering maples are semitropical, frost-tender perennial shrubs that are winter-hardy in Zones 9 and 10. They can be treated as annuals or overwintered elsewhere and are also suitable for container planting (both indoors and out!).
Growing
Provide full sun to partial shade, depending on the variety.
Feed every 2 to 4 weeks, using a fertilizer high in phosphorous—to promote flower production—at half-strength. For bushier plants, prune occasionally.
Overwintering Flowering Maples
If overwintering outdoor plants indoors, provide intense bright light and cool (50° to 60°F) temperatures at night. With sufficient light, many will bloom throughout the winter. Avoid fertilizer and water only enough to keep the soil slightly moist, such as once per month. Note that overwintering can result in a more vigorous plant in the following year.
Flowering Maples in Containers
Pinch the tops of the branches to encourage a compact habit and to avoid legginess. This will also help to keep the plant root-bound and thus control its size—and potentially boost its efflorescence. Plants bloom best when pot-bound. Flowering maples are fast-growing, so repot to a slightly larger container every year or two.
- ‘Bella’ series: compact (15- to 18-inch) plants; seeds are readily available
- ‘Kristen’s Pink’: 12 to 16 inches tall; 3-inch-wide, bell-shaped flowers
- ‘Souvenir de Bonn’: 6 to 10 feet tall; salmon-orange flowers with red veining; leaves edged in creamy white; prune or pinch branches for shorter plant
- ‘Tiger Eye’: 6 to 8 feet tall; pendulous yellow flowers with red veining evocative of lanterns; prune or pinch branches for shorter plant
Carol Connare
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