'Pyramidale' is a German introduction dating from the 1880s and 'Silver Queen' came out of Iowa during the 1960s. Many other forms have been named also - but only a few of these will be expected to be on the North American market at any given time. I would try searching "saccharinum price", seeing what comes up.

arbordaveIN - have you considered any of the freemanii hybrids - crosses between the silver saccharinum and the red rubrum? You get the best of both - fast growth and very good foliage throughout the growing season.

Marshall

I wasn't familiar with the Freeman hybrids until your suggestion. They seem to offer everything I was looking for in the silver maple, minus the weak branches and poor form, with the added benefit of nicer fall color. I particularly like the description of the Marmo cultivar (Height to 70', upright form, no seed and bright but varied fall color). And best of all, I've found suppliers online. Sounds like I've found my winner.

Thanks very much for the feedback!

Good Luck with growing your trees.
Marshall

Hi arbordave,

I recently joined the forum as well- welcome!

I have experience with a wide variety of the Freeman Hybrids and my recommendation for quick growth far and away is Autumn Fantasy. This year with the nice long fall ours here had stop in your tracks screaming red fall color. Each year is slightly different but majority of the years is absolutely fantastic. Planted a row of these for a client and they have grown over 8' in the last two years. Great branch structure as well.

Marmo and Celebration, two other hybrids, have good branch structure but can be highly variable for fall color. One year will be decent, the next non-existent.

Autumn Blaze has awful branch structure as it ages unless corrective pruning measures are taken.

Two newer ones are Redpointe and Firefall. I prefer Redpointe as it has good growth (around 2-3' per year) and ever-changing fall color starting out orange-purple and ending brilliant red. Redpointe is a great all-around tree.

Other options for the site are the ever popular river birch (can grow 3' + a year in good conditions), sweetgum (many cultivars available), or lacebark elm. All have pretty quick growth rates. Good luck!

Bruce

Sweet-gums prone to serious breakage under occasional early (November-December for us) snow loads here.