Is anyone familiar with sugar maple cultivars and their fall color? I saw a Fall Fiesta at a local nursery and the color was awesome. It also sounds like Autumn Blaze is thought of to have some of the best fall colors of any Sugar Maple. Does anyone have opinions on this?
The one most offered by commercial production operations in Oregon is GREEN MOUNTAIN ('PNI 0285'). Often a driver of such occurrences is tractability. With in fact a big part of the appeal in this instance being resistance to summer leaf damage. And if you look up this variety, you may find its typical autumn behavior suits your purposes - there are probably plenty of images of it in color on the web.
"Autumn Blaze" (the cultivar name is 'Jeffersred') is not a sugar maple, it's A. x freemanii. "Green Mountain" is a great maple, if it performs well in Ron's area (assuming he's coastal) it should do well for you. The thing is, the sugar maples are quite variable depending on climate, and don't like the warm, wet of places like Eugene (or Normandie, for that matter) very much. They are anything but spectacular here, and have a tendency to not establish easily, especially in multiple wet winters. For that, the Red Maple (A. rubrum) or indeed Freeman's Maple is much better. In ground we have a couple Sugar Maples established, 'Louisa Lad' and the species, but these show practically no fall colors, at best a dull orange/yellow. The thread title should be changed to "... fall color in wet coastal climates?" then you might get some better advice. Just looking at pictures on the web may leave you disappointed. I know 'Legacy' performs well in the Netherlands, but it is colder and dryer there. We don't have it. You might want to consider a Red Maple, A. rubrum, unless you've found the dry part of Eugene.
Eugene is in the same Willamette valley where most horticultural crops produced in Oregon are raised. As with other parts of the Pacific Northwest growing seasons there are dry; a normal summer in "rainy" Seattle is like a 100-year drought in London. With the way precipitation is spread evenly through the year in Britain and Northern Europe not being the situation over here.
We have very dry summers in Oregon, rain can happen but it's not the norm. Rain usually starts in October, there are a few Rubrums in my neighborhood and they do look incredible, the one down the street is starting to change. I really love the large leaves of the Sugar Maples though... Green Mountain I have seen around here a lot, as well as Fall Fiesta. Would be nice to find someones established Sugar Maple cultivars here in town so I could observe them. Thanks for everyones input! UBC Maple Forum never disappoints.
I was talking about winter rain, indeed, which is why I said "multiple wet winters". I have family in Portland, but visited Eugene, a city of which I'm quite fond, in summer; the weather was gorgeous. Good luck Connor, hope you find your tree. Seeing what is doing well locally is a really good plan.