When you buy a bare root red maple tree to plant in your yard, it'll usually look more like a skinny stick than a towering shade tree. While it'll take time for it to reach maturity, it won't stay a ...

Dear Neil: Do red maple seeds need to be scarified like the Texas mountain laurel seeds you described here a few weeks ago? A: No. Like most plants, their seed coats are not hard. Just plant them.

As a child living in the mid-Atlantic region, I recall watching the “helicopters” of maple seeds floating down from the trees and how we’d try to run around and catch them before they hit the ground.