Amur maple is common, for the sake of variety the Korean maple would be preferable.

I have a Korean maple but can't comment on sun tolerance. Mine is in a spot, sort of shaded by the neighbors house, and it gets roughly 3 hours of sun per day. As it gets taller it might be a bit more sun, however.

They apparently have very striking fall color, though mine doesn't develop it since it's in shady conditions. It grows fine, however, and looks compact and nice looking after 5 years. It really resembles a green type of Japanese maple. Acer ginnala 'amur' maple apparently gets great fall color as well.

One thing you may want to consider is the rate of growth per year. I am not sure how much growth this translates into, but one site said amur maple is "fairly fast growing". I am only going by my Korean maple, but it's six feet high after 5 years. Having said that, however, maybe it would grow quicker if it was in more sun, better soil, etc. I haven't heard anything about leaf scorch, but as I've said mine's in more of a shady spot so I wasn't too concerned about that.

Regards,
Glen

By the way, if you want to do some research on both, do an internet search for acer ginnala for the amur maple, acer pseudosieboldianum for the Korean maple. Maybe you could jot down some of the pros and cons of both.

There is also acer ginnala 'bailey compact' but this is supposedly more shrub like around 4 feet.

Glen

Glen- thank you for your information. I had heard varying reports about the growth rate of the amur maple- some sites said "moderate" others said slow. But from what I gathered, in comparison to the Korean it is more of a moderate grower.

I will try a search on their scientific names (I guess that's what they are called??), most of the information I found was pretty basic and it seemed like each site just copied the same thing...word-for-word in some cases!

I am also planning on going to the nursery today to inquire about actually purchasing one. The people there are pretty knowledgable so maybe they can give me some thought starters too.

The only downside is that now I have to re-think where I am going to plant it. I may have to move it 6 feet or so in another direction because apparently there's some power lines or something in the area I wanted to plant it. Arrggg!! I've got this HUGE lawn with nothing in it, but unless I plant something close to the edge of my yard (bordering on the neighbors) or directly in front of our window, we run into the power lines.

Thanks again! I'll post what I've decided on.

Regarding the growth rate, I have sown many Acer ginnala seeds last march. My tallest seedling is now 4 feets tall and the other are 2 or 3.

I think this is a pretty fast growing tree at least when young.

Abrahamia- thank you for the size reference. That helps me immensely!! I actually bought an amur just over a week ago and I was wondering about it's age. Mine is about 6 feet tall. I had posted a question about pruning it, as I would like it to look more like a multi-trunked tree than a shrub. The only comments that I received was from a gentleman who thought it was too big and old to try and change it now. I will be happy either way- but I read that amur's can take quite a bit of pruning without any problems so I will carefully try and shape it into the style I am hoping for. It is doing well so far and is turning a beautiful pink/red with a mixture of orange and yellow on some leaves. It looks gorgeous!! I am extremely happy.