Japanese Maples in Baton Rouge

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Best bet will be Bloodgood.

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Are they that maroon color leaf year round?

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There also a different green variety that would do well but I can’t recall the specimen name

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Japanese Virdis?

Orange Dream seemed pretty as well. THey had a bunch of different varietals at Clegg's

We have a Crimson Queen Japanese Maple in Baton Rouge. It's planted in part shade and protected from the afternoon sun. Purchased it at Doug Young in Forest Hill. It's a beautiful little tree.

I love Japanese maples. My front yard in BR is completely shaded by a canopy of live oaks. Would one do well in that environment?

LSU runs an Ag research facility in Hammond. It's been a few years since I've seen any updates but they had something like 150 varieties planted for performance testing in our climate. You can easily go broke going down the rabbit hole of varieties.

I bought a handful from ConfierKingdom in Oregon. Those have all done great. I also bought a few conifers from them that theoretically should have performed well in our zone. Several of those died suddenly.

Last month I found myself at Maple Ridge nursery in ATL area, I mentioned this as they had a lot of the same plants. They mentioned that the root stock was probably the culprit. She told me the variety of root stock they use for conifers there. I have no clue if there are options like that for Maples. But it makes me more likely to buy maples from closer to our zone.

There's also a maple specific nursery a bit outside of Auburn. Never been, but I bet it's cool.

Found it... Millstone Japanese Maple Nursery

Though no Japanese maple will shine as they do in cooler, less humid climates - leaf scorch in the heat of summer is inevitable in our area - some of the cultivars mentioned have done very well for me - Bloodgood, Coral Bark Sango Kaku, and Baton Rouge (ordered on line). Bloodgood and Sango Kaku are usually available at local nurseries.

I’ve purchased several more heat tolerant cultivars on-line from Mr. Maples LINK - do not hesitate to order from them if you see some you like. Hot Tamale, Gold Digger, Hot Blonde, Hot Sauce are among heat tolerant cultivars I’ve ordered from Mr Maple.