Pity the poor parlor maple. It is not a maple tree by any stretch of the imagination and its days of houseplant stardom peaked back when people still had parlors. It’s a sad predicament for a lovely plant.
The plant taxonomists will never assign parlor maples, more formally known as Abutilon x hybrida, to the same Acer family as common sugar, red and Japanese maples. Abutilons are simply not related to maples, despite having maple-like leaves. The fashion cycle is a different story. Everything comes back in style if you wait long enough—just look at the fashion trajectories of big hair and platform shoes. Centuries have come and gone and every twenty or thirty years, one or both of those styles return to fashion for one or both sexes. The same holds true for houseplants. In fact, parlor maples are overdue for the spotlight.
I am going to push the trend and invest in a parlor maple, just because I like them. Space may be an issue, of course. I have become the houseplant equivalent of a crazy cat lady and this winter I expect to be awash in geraniums, amaryllis and assorted other houseplants, including a rather large, tree-form hibiscus. Clearly I am going to have to invest in a few more of the cheap, clip-on lamps that are easy to hide among the leaves and make winter life possible for all those sun-loving species. I tell myself that the additional light will also help me with Seasonal Affective Disorder. It certainly can’t hurt the parlor maple.
Abutilons are part of the mallow or Malvaceae plant family, which is also home to hollyhocks, hibiscus, cotton and okra. Malva flowers tend to have five large petals apiece, except in double flowered forms. Many are distinguished by a prominent central staminal column. If you have seen a hollyhock, you get the idea. If you take a hollyhock flower and gently massage it into a bell shape, you will end up with something that looks like a parlor maple bloom. The flowers are pendant and face downward, like bells, but are large and showy enough to stand out anyway.
Many parlor maples are grown in containers, because they cannot withstand temperatures below freezing. In my part of the northeast, gardeners often put them outside during the growing season and bring them in when the weather gets chilly. If you like the plants but don’t want the work of hauling them in and out of the house, they can be grown indoors year round, or raised outdoors and treated as annuals. I plan to keep mine and treat it like all the other houseplants, bringing it in when nighttime temperatures start dipping into the low fifties.
Grown in pots, parlor maples reach 2 to 4 feet tall and equally wide, which is not small, but not overwhelming either. The soft, fuzzy leaves really resemble the lobed foliage of maple trees. The plants grow naturally into a shrubby shape, but can also be trained into standard or tree form, which makes them less bulky looking. Flowers appear throughout the growing season and sometimes during the winter.
Since Victorian times, when parlor maples were all the rage, breeders have increased the range of flower colors, which include white, cream, yellow, shades of pink and rose, as well as red. Bi-colored varieties are also occasionally available. One of the most popular abutilons is Thompson’s Variety, more properly known as Abutilon pictum ‘Thompsonii’. Thompson’s features orange flowers that shade from pale at the petal edges to dark orange at the flowers’ centers. The foliage is variegated, splashed with cream-yellow. I think that the Thompsonii parlor maples are most effective grown as trees, but that shouldn’t stop others from buying them and allowing them to grow as nature intended.
Like all growing things, parlor maples do best under specific conditions. Indoors, position them in the brightest spots. A southern or eastern exposure is best. Keep them away from heat sources, because they like their winter temperatures on the cool side. Temperature extremes of any kind interrupt the flowering cycle. Keep the soil consistently moist—not wet—to the touch. Unlike many plants, abutilons do not tolerate dry conditions and wilt promptly if they dry out. When the plants send out young shoots, pinch them back to encourage sturdy branches and the kind of bushy habit that leads to more flowers. You can also prune after flowering to maintain size and shape.
As is often the case, I can’t decide which variety to buy. I love ‘Thompsonii,’ but killed one in the distant past. I like the floriferous ‘Kristin’s Pink’ for its hollyhock-like rose-pink blooms. Perhaps I’ll put the past behind me and try again with ‘Thompsonii,’ but also hedge my bets with ‘Kristin’s Pink.’ My husband will be delighted; not by the plant purchase, but by the fact that he will finally have an excuse to keep the house temperature chilly this winter. I’ll be delighted to invest in a few more sweaters.
Abutilons seem to be more popular in England and perhaps in Europe than they are here. Still, for a respectable selection, try Logee’s, 141 North Street Danielson, CT 06239; (888) 330-8038; www.logees.com. Free print catalog.