Little Sango Dwarf Coral Bark Japanese Maple

Acer palmatum ‘Little Sango’

Other Names: Little Coral Japanese Maple

Plant Details

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 6a-9b Find Your Zone

Plant Type: Deciduous Tree

Height at Maturity: maybe 5′ at 10 years of age; 7-8′ at maturity

Width at Maturity: maybe 3′ wide at 10 years of age; 5-6′ wide at maturity

Growth Habit / Form: Upright, Rounded

Growth Rate: Slow

Foliage Color in Spring: Bright Chartreuse Green

Foliage Color in Summer: Medium to Light Green

Foliage Color in Fall: Yellow and Orange shades

Light Needs: Full Sun or Mostly Sun, Morning Sun with Dappled or Afternoon Shade, All Day Filtered Sun, Morning Shade with Evening Sun

Water Needs: Average, moderately drought tolerant when established

Soil Type: Clay (amend heavy clay to ensure good drainage), Loam, Sandy, Silt

Drainage: Moist But Well Drained – Well drained soil is a must!

Soil pH: 5.0 – 7.0 is ideal

Maintenance: Low

Attracts: Visual Attention

Resistances: Deer – more info, Heat Tolerant, Insect Resistant, Sun Tolerant, Disease

Description

Extremely beautiful and hard to find, ‘Little Sango’ Japanese Maple is a sport of the immensely and ever-popular ‘Sango Kaku’. If you haven’t had space for a magnificently colored coral bark Japanese maple now you do! Everything about Little Sango is smaller; the height to only 8 feet and about half as wide, and the smaller leaves. This makes Little Sango a great fit for smaller garden spaces and containers. In spring, the extremely dense, little new leaves emerge a bright light green to light chartreuse-green, standing out beautifully against the brilliant coral-red stems and branches. By summer the leaves have darkened a little in color before changing to shades of yellow, gold and orange with the arrival of cooler temperatures in fall. After the leaves drop the vibrant bark takes the stage throughout the winter and early spring. As with its parent, Little Sango is more sun and heat tolerant than other Japanese maple varieties.

Landscape & Garden Uses

To showcase its magnificence and beauty, the Little Sango Japanese Maple is best used in the landscape as a focal point specimen to draw attention to a specific area of the home or garden. That said, it can be planted in groupings or two can be used to frame an entrance. Container culture can extend the useful range of Japanese Maples. They are extremely easy to grow in containers, a practice taken to its most extreme form in the art of bonsai.

Spacing: At least 7′ for space between trees

Note: One Japanese Maple can make a landscape…that is if you don’t overcrowd it with other trees and plants. Therefore, when selecting companions to plant under or around your Japanese Maple, make sure to select low-growing shrubs or groundcover plants that won’t interfere at all with your tree.

Growing Preferences

Though delicate looking, Japanese Maples are actually very tough and long-lived trees. They are very easy to grow in both the ground or in containers, a practice taken to its most extreme form in the art of bonsai.

In their natural habitat, Japanese Maples are understory trees, growing in dappled forest sunlight at the edges of woodlands. Ideally they prefer to be grown in similar conditions. That said, you can find a complete listing of our sun-tolerant Japanese Maple varieties here, of which Little Sango is one.

Most any average garden soil will grow Japanese Maples. They prefer a moist but well-drained soil rich in organic matter. As with so many other ornamental plants and trees, constantly soggy or wet soil can be problematic. So make sure to plant your Japanese Maple in a well-drained site.

Helpful Articles

Click on a link below to find helpful advice from our experts on how to plant and care for Japanese Maple trees.

How To Plant A Japanese Maple Tree In The Ground

How to Plant A Japanese Maple Tree In A Pot

How To Fertilize And Water A Japanese Maple Tree

How To Prune A Japanese Maple

Plant Long & Prosper!

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