A buddy of mine has a yard designed with all Texas native trees/shrubs. He is interested in adding a bigtooth maple. If we can find one, I'd get one as well. We live in DFW and have not had any luck in spring or fall of 2022.

We figured this spring we'd expand our search to the Central Texas/hill country area and hopefully have better luck. Anybody know of nurseries in central Texas (or anywhere for that matter) that have historically carried bigtooths?

You might try Far South in Austin, Henry grows all kinds of natives. They're a wholesale nursery that sells to the public these days. The website isn't the best, but if something is on there they will have it at some point, this time of year most things will be unavailable while they are growing them to the size they want to be for the spring.

None at Far South on the latest availability email I received a week ago.
Bigtooths have been tough to find the past few years & they are pricey.

Natives of Texas is a great source. Interesting guy, rocket scientist IIRC.

Good luck on the maple. I've had the same issue.

I bought two a few years ago from Rainbow Gardens in San Antonio.

Got mine at a small nursery in Helotes.

Got mine at Nursery between Kerrville and Medina, as already mentioned.

Possibly dumb question:

Can you get maple sap to run from a big tooth maple and have any of y'all ever tapped one?

I've had a thought about trying to plant a few up on our property in E TX for that purpose.

Boerne gives them away every year.. Not sure if it is the city a local club or what...

Wonderful trees. I have one at my house now, and I've wanted to add another one. I haven't been able to find any in Austin, but as previously mentioned they are more of plentiful down around Kerrville.

Metro maples in ft worth is an awesome maple resource, but last time i spoke with them, they were out of the Bigtooth maples as well.

Metro Maples is awesome! I've bought several Shantung and a couple Japanese Maples from them. They said they're working on Bigtooth but about 1-2 years away from being able to offer them commercially.

What part of the Metroplex are you in? I'd be interested in one or more as well if you guys can find some and would consider a group buy.

Backbone nursery in Marble Falls may have some available in the fall 2023

I'll email you

Bump in case anyone still interested...

Wilson Tree and Landscape Nursery in Helotes will have some in 15-gal size available starting May 18. Cost is $700. They will also have caddo maples available.

The apple orchard folks in Medina always had some in stock. The original owner learned how to propagate them well.

We (Lions Club) bought 50-60 of them during my time in Utopia to plant along the road south of town to replace the ones that had died from the original planting.

beatlesphan said:

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A buddy of mine has a yard designed with all Texas native trees/shrubs. He is interested in adding a bigtooth maple. If we can find one, I'd get one as well. We live in DFW and have not had any luck in spring or fall of 2022.

We figured this spring we'd expand our search to the Central Texas/hill country area and hopefully have better luck. Anybody know of nurseries in central Texas (or anywhere for that matter) that have historically carried bigtooths?

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Years ago I did a Texas Wildscape yard in San Antonio. Got my Bigtooth Maple from Rainbow Gardens in San Antonio.

D Nauti said:

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You might try Far South in Austin, Henry grows all kinds of natives. They're a wholesale nursery that sells to the public these days. The website isn't the best, but if something is on there they will have it at some point, this time of year most things will be unavailable while they are growing them to the size they want to be for the spring.

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I'm curious how you know Henry?

I grew up in the front portion of the neighborhood that nursery is in.

Interesting. Does anyone have one that is growing to share a pic?

Would they grow well enough in Central Texas?

I have one doing poorly in my yard here in North Georgetown, TX area. I had one previously that always limped along and then got too damaged at the base to hold out hope for any longer. This one is having issues at the base of the trunk as well.

If this one doesn't make it, I'm gonna look for an escarpment black cherry to replace it.

This is from my friend's yard in Dallas. He bought it as a 5 gal (which was a single twig about 8 inches tall, not exaggerating) from the Natives of Texas Nursery and kept it in a pot for the first year. Then put it in the ground in the fall of 2023. It's about 4 ft tall now. The nursery owner told him to protect it from afternoon summer sun for the first 2-3 years so he plans on putting up some sun shade in May.

In Utopia, we had to put a water basin around them, mulch and water them during the heat of the summer. They need consistent moisture to do well. That;s why they do well at Lost Maples State Park, consistent(mostly) supply of water from the river.

They don't like the extreme heat we can have here. So, as mentioned above, a little shade actually helps.

Neighbors in Utopia planted several Japanese maples that did extremely well and were very colorful in the fall.

TH36 said:

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D Nauti said:

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You might try Far South in Austin, Henry grows all kinds of natives. They're a wholesale nursery that sells to the public these days. The website isn't the best, but if something is on there they will have it at some point, this time of year most things will be unavailable while they are growing them to the size they want to be for the spring.

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I'm curious how you know Henry?

I grew up in the front portion of the neighborhood that nursery is in.

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I was in the business when Native Texas Nursery was there, I started working for Greater Texas Landscapes and they moved into the front part of the space after Native Texas moved to Webberville. Once we moved to Kingsland I started a maintenance business as a side hustle and would make a trip or two to see Henry and pick up some hard to find things every year.