We have one black maple and three sugar maples in our lawn. The black maple was purchased from a local nursery here in West Central Minnesota, with the understanding it was a "green mountain" sugar maple. As it was the first maple we had ever planted, we didn't realize that it was different from typical sugar maples until 20 years later when we decided to plant some more sugar maples. Now, 15 years after the sugar maples were planted, we can clearly see the difference between the two species (some experts prefer to call black maple a subspecies of sugar maple). The black maple has much larger leaves that are rather leathery and always look drooped. Initially, we thought that the droopiness was due to its location in a full sun, rather windy spot. But, after 35 years, the droopy leaves are always like that, and they are always leathery too. The large leaf size always receives comments from visitors. Fall coloration probably isn't all that much different than our sugar maples, but I feel the colors have more punch/vividness to them. Also, the leaves hang on much longer than on the sugar maples, having begun to change color at least one week before the sugar maples, and keeping it at least a week longer as well. It is worth noting that the black maple begins to turn color rather slowly and progresses throughout the tree over a span of about 4 weeks. As I write this in mid-October, there are still some green leaves on the north side of the tree's crown, while the vibrant reds and oranges that first appeared on the south side have now been blown off the tree in the past 3 days when 30+ mph winds came through. All of our sugar maples were purchased with the "Green Mountain" tag affixed to them. They have smaller leaves and all seem to turn color about the same time, and rather quickly at that, from green to full orange color in about a week's time. The sugar maples we have have grown much more rapidly than the black maple. The first 10-15 years, the black maple grew very slowly on our yellow clay, well drained soil. After 15 years, it seemed to pick up the pace somewhat, perhaps due to having a well established root system. Then again, it may simply be characteristic of black maple to grow slowly. We have wanted to intentionally purchase another black maple or two to grace some added space we have in our lawn. However, no nurseries have been found that offer it. Strange, as the black maple is an outstanding shade tree! What I have reported is based only on our personal experience with one specimen. Maybe others with black maples would care to offer some of their experiences to this thread as well. DarylJ

It's not inevitable that other existing maples will get it. But it is a possibility. I had a western redbud that succumbed - they too are quite susceptible - and because I had additional susceptible species in close proximity, I elected not to remove the dead tree to avoid any root disturbance. I grew a clematis on it instead :-) The remains eventually rotted away. I also lost a Japanese maple to it, in an entirely different area of my garden. Other J. maples in the garden so far have not been affected (this has been more than 10 years), but I tried to maintain the trees in very good health and avoided any unnecessary cultivation in their root zone. Acer palmatum tends to be more prone than other maple species but any can get it. Keeping the trees in good health, free of stress, any root damage or disturbance and sterilizing pruning tools will reduce the potential for it spreading elsewhere. And I also chose to grow the rest of my maples in containers:-) But even that's no guarantee.

I've spent a lot of time with Louisa May Alcott. Her backstory is so fascinating - as are many people of her era - & the era itself. Another that really captured me was Henriette Deluzy-Desportes. After seeing the Bette Davis/Charles Boyer movie, "All This And Heaven Too", I had to get the book to read (which chronicled so much more of her life) & then became interested in its author, Rachel Field, who also had a very interesting backstory, being related to Henriette through the man she ultimately married. Her introduction to that book describes how she grew up picnicking amongst the tombstones of her new England ancestors & how it inspired her to research & write about this mysterious woman. Henriette Deluzy-Desportes

We had a similarly dark kitchen when we moved into our current house. We had our maple cabinets painted when we moved in, which was five years ago. The painters sprayed the cabinets with a cabinet specific oil-based Ben Moore paint (can't remember the name) and five years later they look great, some marking on the pull-out garbage and a few other places, but that's about it. We also replaced the dark tile floor with white oak wide plank flooring, replaced the black appliances with stainless, the dark brown backsplash with subway tiles, and the red paint with off-white. It has helped a lot. However, it can't change the awkward layout. We are now in the process of replacing the cabinets and countertop and improving the layout (as much as we can since the space is awkward). As a stop-gap measure until we figured out what we wanted and had the budget to do so, painting the cabinets was great. It was also very affordable -- $600 bucks for 12x14 uppers and lowers and 8 feet of lowers on a peninsula.