We have a autumn blaze and really like it. It is about 5 years old. Fast growing tree.

I've never heard of any maple being "all those colors at the same time." Except when leaves in the shade color later (sometimes), and so their fall color progression is delayed, causing a lag in the color progression. But this does not produce a pleasing color contrast anyway. And that I have ever seen, the color progression is not great either: yellow to orange, or light orange to dark orange, but never yellow all the way to red.

Sugar maples, and in fact nearly all maples, do vary in fall color when genetics are different. Just like people can have blonde or brown hair, trees can be different too, to a degree. Thus, even though most sugar maples are yellow in fall, some are orange or maybe even orange-red.

So, in that cemetery, are you sure that each maple was all those colors, and not each maple a different color?

Rick

Maple colors can depend on your soil structure. I have grown several Autumn Blaze maples and the two in the back were slightly more red then the one in my front yard. Another great tree for fall color is Red Sunset and Autumn Spire.

I really appreciate everyone that took the time to answer my post, I will have to look for some photos of those trees so you can see what I am talking about. Yes, all those colors were on one maple tree and if I find a photo I will post it. Thank you again for taking the time to answer my post.

Fall Fiesta sugar maple is said to hold all three colors during the fall. We just bought two last fall when the colors were at their height. My DH who has tremors when ever I go near a plant store, loves them.

My guess is that those are just sugar maples- some of the leaves stay green in the center as the outside edge of the leaves start to color up- they gradually become all orange or red as the season progresses. The younger trees or those without much sun exposure to color them will have a yellow leaf. I have three young trees in my yard that are slowly getting tall enough to get up into the sunshine and each year they have showed a little more color on their leaves for me but they started out as pure yellow for at least two seasons.

I have always considered a tree that turns all at one time to be more adapted to the environment where it is growing, than one that turns unevenly. Mind you, this excludes color progression, as long as the progression is the same over the whole tree.

I found some photos to show you what I mean.

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OK, I see. Just not my cup of tea. Pictures 2 and 3 just seem abnormal to me. And I still think they are flukes. Picture 1 is a common "problem", as the cause is a color progression lag. You will later find the upper branches defoliated while the lower branches are in full color. To me, it is unappealing.

True, the upper branches do become defoliated sooner but when they are like this with all the leaves in assorted colors, in my humble opinion, they are gorgeous!! These trees have done this 3 years in a row now and they make gorgeous backdrops for senior photos.

This is a photo I took of my neice 3 years ago.

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Boy! No one can argue with that!

For orange fall color you can't beat Acer triflorum, the Three-flowered Maple. There are some beautiful specimens at the Minn Landscape Arb.