The leaves are usually green when they fall (which is early).

One good feature of this tree is that it responds quite well to glyphosate or triclopyr applied to its freshly cut stump.

I saw a couple today - looked like death. No fall color and the leaves were just crumpled.

I don't think anyone gets this tree for the fall color. Same with mimosa and tree of heaven.

I have one that is about 15 years old. No real fall color, it turns greenish yellow and then when hit by frost turns brown and drops almost immediately.

I know there are many, many on here who hate this tree, but I personally enjoy mine. It hasn't ever really suffered significant dieback, but rarely blooms. This past spring, after the mildest winter in many years, I had about the "best" floral display yet, with perhaps 25% of the buds on each cluster opening.

How big has it gotten in 15 years, have a pic?

Mine pretty much does as described above, once a frost hits, it turns brown and drops. But I don't notice any special fall color with most native trees around here, so doesn't stand out as a negative.

It's probably about 20 feet tall, maybe 25. I'm not a good judge of these things, but that's probably a reasonable estimate.

Mine is multi-trunked. When it was a baby, it winterkilled the first season to the mulch line, and several came up and I just left them. It no doubt would be taller if one single trunk, but I really like the shape of it this way, kind of a nice clump with an even canopy.

I'll see if I can get a picture this weekend. By the time I'm home from work now at about 5:45 it's already almost completely dark.

I've had 2 of my 3 species for about 5 years, but I'm always moving them around, so they don't get established. The tomentosa I have has been in same spot since '08, but has experienced two -20 topkilling winters in a row, so don't know what it will do in a more typical winter.

I promised to post this photo a month ago, and forgot.

Hope this works -- I hate posting photos on here, I never can remember which link to photobucket to copy.

{{gwi:484125}}

Looks good, grows like a shrub.