Aah - Maples (and Dipteronia) - one of my favourite groups of trees.
While at Liverpool Uni. I collected a few hundred seeds from under a paperbark maple in Calderstones Park, aware of the low fertility (at least in the UK). I sowed 'em all and had about five germinate. The years took their toll, and I was down to one when I moved to Cyprus in 2009, reluctantly giving that one away (in a big pot) to a recently-discovered bonsai enthusiast. For a few years, I had had a miniature display of the deep red autumn foliage I had loved when seen in mature paperbarks.
Amur maple is another one I grew for its rich autumn colours; and I managed to root it from cuttings.
For a long-ago birthday, my ex gave me an Acer palmatum dissectum, which I dutifully tended, and which looked wonderful when its red leaves were wet with dew and backlit by the low morning sun.
Here in Cyprus, however, the native maples are in the autumn-yellow part of the spectrum.
But even with mainly yellows, you can make more of them by working with contrasts and with complements.
That's hinted at in this photo, which I took by Evretou reservoir in western Cyprus on 6jan2011. The yellow is provided by tamarisk, contrasted with green in the foreground, and complemented with the silvery twiggery beyond.
(from my
Facebook pages)