i never knew trees had crotches...it makes me wonder who is in charge of judging the superiority of these said crotches...and if they also do this to people...

Wow! The leaves are beautiful. I can't wait for our leaves to all turn. My family is orginally from East TN and you can see the knobs (that's bigger than a hill but smaller than a mountain) turn shades of red, yellow, orange and brown. I am homesick for its beauty.

Thanks for the gorgous picture. I don't get to see much of that here in my part of Orange County, CA.

WOW. Beautiful Picture. We dont get autumn here where I live, at least the leaves dont change colour :( I saw your blog through blogexplosion. Good Job so far! ^_^

The colors are so perfect. This is my favorite time of year!!

That is one of the nicest pics of Maple leaves I have ever seen... I am trying to find this tree in Canada and cannot find them here anywhere... how big are the leaves? I notice that they do not look blotchy, which is nice as some of the maple trees here look 'notched', like some disease is attacking them. How old is your tree? How tall? Does your tree have any seeds on it? If I cannot find the trees here I'd like to get seeds. If someone sent you a self addressed stamped bubble envelope could you sweep up some of the biggest seeds into it when it is fall cleanup time?

My fiancee and I are getting married in two weeks. We are having a seed ceremony in place of a candle ceremony and would like to plant Autumn Blaze Maple seeds because it is my favorite tree. I have been unable to find these seeds and am heart-broken about it. Do you know where I can buy the seeds?

I planted an autumn blaze maple in '97 and it's grown nicely to 25 to 30 feet tall and goes from deep red in early fall to a bright pink before the leaves drop. Last year ('05) It really began to provide meaningful shade to the house and yard. However, this spring I've found that my sterile hybrid of a Maple tree is producing seeds!

I took a small branch and my receipt to the nursery where I bought it and they were suprised. The seeds at least at this point are smaller than I'm familiar with and red in color.

I'm wondering if they won't sprout or it will be as in Jurassic Park where Jeff Goldblums character says "Life will find a way". The guys at the nursery thought perhaps because last year was a bit dry it may be stressed and trying to propagate itself because of that.

Any thoughts out there?

You can buy Autumn Blaze Maples at Wal-Mart where I bought my two

Plants go to seed when in stress to repopulate. Plant location, soil drainage, acidity, sun, wind, winter protection, there are a multitude of factors as simple as we watered flowers under the tree that had no stress so therefore it got enough water.