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Carolina Gardening

What trees are showing the best Fall Color this year?

15 years ago

Last year I definitely saw brilliant color from the Sweet Gums. The maples are always great.

This year the Black Gums are spectacular. A ruby red...and some with a tinge of orange. I wish I had a stately Black gum!

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Comments (8)

ncdirtdigger
15 years ago
My fringe tree is always the first to turn a golden yellow (it always the last to leaf out in the spring too) and the cherokee chief dogwoods are a beautiful burgandy, while the cherokee brave is a softer orange. The fothergilla is starting to make its transformation with our cold front having moved through last night. and not to forget the beech trees are turning golden.
jqpublic
Original Author
15 years ago
I hope the winds subside enough for the colors to stay on the trees a little longer. Great fall weather this week!
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Thanks Putzer and Rick! The Prairiefire Crabapple and American Smoke Tree both have great red fall color! Exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for, although the AST may be a little large for the space I have available, I'll have to do some thinking about that (but then, what else do I have to do all winter but THINK about gardening :-). I'll have to check out the grey dogwood too. I'm thinking about a couple of red-twig dogwoods and a yellow-twig dogwood mixed in for contrast already. And I don't care if the dwarf burning bushes are really common. I think they are great and some will most likely be making it into my yard too. Thanks for the comment on #182, Putzer! That's a close up of a deep maroon mum surrounded by gourds from my veggie garden - they were a kind of funny accident. All through the early part of the summer, we thought we had volunteer cucumbers, until they started blooming that it! The blossums were huge. Turns out they were gourds - must have tossed one in there to decompose last winter 'cause I sure hadn't raised any before! #68 is a surprise, Rick! Probably not one you'll want to add to your garden since they are kind of invasive in a lot of soils.... not mine though. I have this heavy yellow clay.... Anyway, if you haven't guessed by the description, that curly red top belongs to an Obedient Plant! Would you have ever guessed? Oh, and Rick, you're right about being new garden space. Tom and I were married fall of 2003. IBefore that, he had one little 9' square veggie garden and that little bed of annuals in front of the house. And the trees and a few bushes... that's it! I put in a few peonies that fall, then added the shade garden under the maple in the front yard, a border of perennials in the back, and a couple of hosta beds in 2004. Then more hosta beds, a nursery area, a rose garden, and the beginnings of a combination hosta and iris garden this summer, 2005. I think the rewards will be showing up in the next 2-3 years. Can't wait!
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Lynda Waldrep
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jqpublic
Original Author
15 years ago
Its really starting to kick it into gear now. The rare Sugar Maples are changing on their upper halves...The tulip poplars are about 1/2 yellow. I'm disappointed in the sweet gums though. I can't express how great they were last year...yellows, reds, oranges, purples and everything in btw!
amyflora
15 years ago
My Witch Hazel has been lovely, and I am again stunned by the vibrant red of poison ivy in the tree across the street. Have to remember that when I am cursing it next spring, itching and hateful!
mbuckmaster
15 years ago
It is a gorgeous year for maples, and I'm impressed by the long show the dogwoods are putting on. They've been deep red for over two weeks now (especially those in mostly sun). Some of the crape myrtles I've seen have been especially beautiful too. It's a joy just to walk in the woods or even drive around!
jqpublic
Original Author
15 years ago
Sigh...had a really gorgeous shagbark hickory in the neighborhood earlier last week. It was pure golden yellow and the sun shining through the canopy was great! Too bad its past peak now :(
tamelask
15 years ago
I've noticed that at least in my yard there's been very little red and orange this year. Even my Japanese maples which normally flame are a yellowy orange with some red highlights rather than being solid red. There is one nice dogwood in the shade that's directly out my office window that is coloring very late and rather than the typical purply red it's a bright orange, so it's a very welcome sight! That said, all of the yellows have lit up our backyard. It was so pretty the other morning after it stopped raining and the sun came out and made the leaves shimmer and sparkle with all the raindrops. Driving into town the other morning against the deep blue skies, the colors were breathtaking. I love the fall colors.

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