Colour burst
“Every good garden should have an ,” says Robert, when pressed for his ‘desert island’ tree. Also known as the paperbark maple, it’s small (reaching 3m in ten years), slow-growing, has peeling, cinnamon-coloured bark, good autumn ‘Matsumae-fuki’. You may find it sold as ‘Chocolate Ice’, a fitting alternative name given the crisp white blossom that emerges from among its purple-brown, young leaves.
