I live in north Florida, within 50 miles of the border with Georgia off I-75.

I use Acer rubrum for my bonsai - have about 6 that were dug over the years. The leaves always turn yellow rather than red. Is it the specific tree, is it the soil, is it because it's in a pot? If I gather seed from a known tree that turns red will the seedlings follow and later have red leaves?

My oldest Acer rubrum, gathered near Albany GA is a bit over 30 years old (depends on how old it was when I dug it, can't say, it was about 10" high at the time and is now about 2 feet high). My biggest problem since moving to this spot: there is some kind of insect that lays an egg in the branches which kills the branch off. from the dead spot the branch easily breaks clean off. I have a large box elder, planted in 1994 in my yard, now over 30 ft tall, I noticed it first in that tree, then it began attacking my small Acer's.

As an aside, my oldest Acer has been from GA, to the desert of California, to coastal NC, back to Calif, now to Florida. This year the leaves have finally begun to turn yellow with a few scarlet dabs among them. Two just dropped their leaves with hardly any change in color. Strange to say, the Acer barbatum that I have, one was a gorgeous golden yellow, the other, same age but somewhat smaller, the leaves turned brown and are hanging on.