We planted a Winter Flame Japanese maple in Fall 2009, and it's doing very well in our yard near Green Lake. Here's a photo of it right after we planted it. {{gwi:1084281}}

It's in a protected patio area that's about 20' wide between our house and our neighbors', so it only gets morning sun for 6-8 hours then it's in the shade the rest of the day. It was about 3.5' tall when we planted it in fairly rich soil with lots of organic matter and worms. Even though last summer was relatively cool, we had to water it every few days, or its leaves started to wilt. it's now about 4-4.5' tall, and the new growth this summer is about 6-9" long.

During summer it has small healthy green leaves with yellowish-red new growth, so it looks like every other green Japanese maple. BUT In winter it's BEAUTIFUL! Most of its trunk and stems get bright red, both old and new wood, unlike the 'Sango kaku' on which only the newer wood is red and the older wood stays greyish-brown.

Our Winter Flame had several black stems tips the first spring after we planted it, which may have been Pseudomonas syringae. Now I don't prune it and our other Japanese maple until after they start leafing out, and there were much fewer black stem tips this spring.

It's definitely slow growing, but otherwise, it's a great little tree.

Thanks for the information. There's no info like first hand info. The Winter Flame and Fjellheim are my favorites of the group, but I was't sure how they'd do in partial shade with our wet springs. Because of the trees surrounding our place, the sun exposure would be opposite of yours, with 6-8 hours of afternoon sun. All of my shade/partial shade trees are doing well so far. My full sun trees are beginning to "green out", so I don't think they get enough sun.

Both my Aureum and my Autumn Moon are doing great though, soif anything the Winter Flame or Fjellheim won't get enough sun to develop their full colors. Oh well, guess there's no way to know but to buy one and give it a try.

Blake