Has anyone planted a Japanese Maple in full sun?

I’ve taken an interest in Jap maples the past couple years and bought some, like 8 or 9, to give a try but in our area of south Louisiana, heat and humidity, they are not going to thrive as you see them in magazines, etc. in cooler parts of the country. Full sun is very difficult for them at our latitude.

There are sun/heat tolerate varieties and those most likely to so well in our area and are easily obtainable are Bloodgood, Emperor I, Sango Kaku (coral bark). I’ve noticed the Sango Kaku grows pretty fast.

There is a J maple cultivar named “Baton Rouge” that was discovered in Houston with the claim it tolerates full sun - I just received a small received one as a gift in Jan, it just started to leaf out, but I can’t say how it will do yet in full sun, but we’ll see. I have another cultivar called Sun Gold, in near full sun, that looked good most of the summer, and near late Aug, as I recall, the leaves became somewhat scorched. I think you’ll have to expect leaf scorching in our climate, regardless of the variety, at some point in the heat of summer.

“Baton Rouge” and “Sun Gold” you would have to mail order, the other varieties I mentioned are usually carried by larger retail plant nurseries - just saw some Bloodgoods at Home Depot yesterday. I’ve mail ordered my Jap maples, not available locally, from Mr Maples in NC. They have a good website - check it out. Mr. Maples. You can shop by sun tolerance on their site. Run by two brothers brought up in the plant nursery business who really know their stuff.

Lastly, you can purchase some larger size Bloodgood, Emperor 1, and maybe the Coral Bark Sango Kaku at Doug Young Nusery in Forest Hills, at good pricing but they still expensive as all Jap Maples are. They grow so slowly, large ones are going to be $$$.

Have had good success with the Bloodgood variety.

Waterfall or Threadleaf Jap Maples are a beautiful brilliant green and turning burnt orange in the fall. Those do well in full sun but might be tough to find around here. I put a few in a design a couple years ago and we had to bring them in from Texas or Tennessee i think

Yes there will always be a little of it u til the tree is acclimated. I try not to mess with them too much. I like to experiment with the shaded varieties. The greens make a beautiful canopy that almost glows when the sun hits it.

Yes, we have a tamukeyama Japanese maple that gets full sun until around 3-4 pm. It needs a good consistent drenching if we don’t get sufficient rain. And, I use a feed recommended by La. Nursery in the Spring.