In my experience they tend to scorch in full sun. by mid summer they have a lot of green and less of the pink and white pigmentation, if grown in partial shade they tend to retain it better.
Hi Mike: In most cases yes, Orido nishiki will keep its variegation when grown in full sun. Mine does even placed in a Western exposure right into the sun and the winds. If you over fertilize your Maple with too much Nitrogen it could very well lose much of its variegation. Jimmyq is right though that your Maple is more likely to scorch and it is the areas that are variegated that will show the leaf burn much more so than the green areas in the leaf. It is suggested and I agree to plant this Maple whereby it will get some afternoon shade. Then again where you are the Maple can grow in 90° weather with not so much trouble as long as it gets ample moisture. Too much shade and we do not see the true colors, too much sun and high temperatures and the colors will burn on us. It takes about 5 years for this Maple in the ground to better adapt to the full sun exposure but this Maple can handle it unlike many of the other variegates. I have mine in a 15 gallon container and moved it from too shady a spot so I would get more growth on it. The price I have to pay is that I will see more scorching of the leaves but I get 3 times the growth than where my Maple originally was also. It all comes down to what we want from our plant but from a realistic point of view Jimmyq was right on the mark. Always choose the side of caution with variegated Maples. Jim
The whole tree This is a picture of the whole tree. I had to crop the picture to make it fit. I don't think the picture is doing the tree justice. I have other pictures that I will post if I can figure out how to make them fit into the attachment portion of the forum.
