FALL COLOR THREAD - 2019
Advantage of being in zone 3 :)
The colors have been quite spotty with some trees already done and some just beginning. But this morning, a few trees stood out in the bright sun.
Gleditsia Triacanthos Quite a few of these around town as boulevard trees.
A few Sugar Maples of unknown type.
Comments (58)
L Clark (zone 4 WY)
4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
Two more box elders and a Kentucky coffeetree. They look way more vibrant in real life lol.
Whsaa - I do not think the box elder in my previous reply is ‘sensation’, but a different cultivar that I can’t remember the name of. Ditto for the first one in this post, but i’m pretty sure the second box elder in this reply is ‘sensation’. Sensation gets sort of pinkish orange rather than red orange. Laramie, WY is the box elder capital. Ha ha. It’s all we got for red/orange color. ‘Sensation’ and the other cultivar are very worthwhile and decent trees imo, especially for here where we can’t grow ‘better’ maples and other trees
whaas_5a
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Show Us Your Landscape and Gardens - A Photo Thread - June 2019
Comments (49)I’m back. I didn’t get a chance to take the photos I was looking for, but I’ll try again tomorrow. I was just looking back over this thread, and I see I missed some of the posts. Deanna, you asked for updates on the Amsonia. I just noticed yesterday, that it is still blooming and looking very fresh. And I’m happy to hear that your Northern Hi Lights azalea is fragrant. I’m going to keep that in mind. You have a lot of Rhododendron and Azaleas. I have very few. I should try for more. You have a sailboat - how amazing. It’s out of the water getting painted - will you be getting it back in the water this summer? That’s a nice combo with the fringed dianthus and the Geranium. I like the pink. I wish I had more geraniums. I saw an article in a garden magazine years ago of a collector of cranesbill - wow - her garden was amazing. She had all kinds of them, Tall ones too and they all mingled together really well. I haven’t seen anything like it since and I am always on the lookout for some of the varieties I remember but I haven’t seen any yet. Maybe I dreamed it. [g] My Nepeta is still blooming. It’s having a great year. Still upright in full sun. Reminds me, I have Salvia, that I just started to cut back on to allow for rebloom and I looked out the window and saw gold finches sitting on the stems and appear to be eating something. I didn’t think there could be seed right now. I didn’t know they like Salvia. That is a very pretty color on that viola. Claire, Your Hosta near your railing is getting so big. I have Geranium ‘Biolkovo’ as well. What a great, easy care plant it is. I also have ‘Karmina’ with it. They are a good combo. Yours looks so pretty with the bleeding heart. Look at how tall your foxglove look. And erect. I am going to have to take a photo of how badly rusted some of my foxglove are this year. I don’t remember having that happen before. I think one I have is ‘Snow Thimble’? I was just noticing that I have two Foxglove that are very robust with healthy foliage and one just started blooming and to my surprise it is sturdier, stockier flowers and stems. I was at the nursery where I bought them last and I spotted them there. Good thing because I couldn’t remember the name of them and really want to have more of them. It’s a Digitalis mertonensis. What a difference next to the purpurea. The foliage is completely clean, with erect flower stems, next to rusted flopped over purpurea. I’ve been noticing amazing blooms on the Kousa dogwoods in our neck of the woods. They must love all the rain. Aren’t you lucky to have daylilies that your Mom might have planted. And fragrant too. I haven’t netted my blueberries either and the birds will get them, I’m sure....See MoreShow Us Your Landscape and Gardens - A Photo Thread - July 2019
Comments (69)I went to Michael Gordon’s garden about 5 years ago as one of about 6 or 7 gardens in a full weekend of garden visits. He used to keep a blog but I stopped checking it when he seemed to lose interest a few years ago. I guess he moved over to Instagram. I really love those Garden Conservancy open garden days. It has large sprawling rural gardens like mine and small jewel boxes like Michael Gordon’s or Deanne’s just chockablock full of beautiful and often unusual plants, and I learn from them all. I did notice Dr. Gordon’s Stewartias. The first one I saw after hearing about them here on GW is at Cole Gardens in Concord, NH, part of the display gardens there. And several are scattered around the UNH campus so I make time at work to periodically to pass by them, among other unusual trees there. I have tried clematis in a bunch of different shrubs and have had varied success. I’ve found that the size of the clematis needs to not overwhelm the shrub and a less densely leafed clem like Little Bas works better. The shrub needs to have stiff enough branches to support their own blooms as well as the clematis, so Quickfire hydrangea works well, but Strawberry Vanilla hydrangea wouldn’t. Suckering shrubs don’t work, but Donald Wyman lilac, which is a different species than common lilac and doesn’t sucker, works well. And when I plant, they are usually something like 4’ apart, depending on the shrub’s expected size, and planted at the same time. I give the clematis an inexpensive support, usually bamboo, for the first couple of years since the shrub typically takes longer to size up. But the majority of my clematis have metal supports and if they wander into nearby shrubs it is a coincidence like the dark purple one in the elderberry....See MoreShow Us Your Landscape and Gardens - A Photo Thread - October 2019
Comments (48)The sun is out this morning, despite a frosty 32 degrees @ 6am. It's warmed up a little and the wind has died down. I was able to get a few photos of color around the yard. The way the trees are situated around us, when fall arrives, they block the sun a lot more. My front bed is full sun all summer but in fall there are 3 hrs during the day that the top of a neighboring tree shades most of it. Which isn't a problem in the front, but in the back, it makes it impossible to plant fall crops. That's a pretty color on that Azalea, Deanna. And I like that Bolero Mum. Aronia Native Oakleaf Hydrangea...See MoreHow do we get the threads by color that were done in the fall?
Comments (4)Julia - It's nearly impossible to find anything on Houzz anymore. I did the posts, and I think I put the year 2020 in the title. So search for Yellow Daylilies of 2020. Well I tried that and it didn't work. The color posts ran from mid October to the first week in December. Go back on the pages of the daylily forum until you get to those months. Debra...See More
bengz6westmd
4 years agoL Clark (zone 4 WY)
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agosah67 (zone 5b - NY)
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoThings are just starting to get colorful here in upstate NY. First, a couple of shots from neighbors' properties:
Fraxinus pennsylvanica
Fraxinus americana
A Quercus (possibly something in the Quercus rubra group?) that's not only coloring up very early for oaks around here, but has also taken on some very Sugar Maple-like tones of neon orange and scarlet...quite striking!And then a few from my garden:
Fothergilla 'Mt Airy'
Aronia melanocarpa 'Low Scape Mound'
The very beginnings of color on Nyssa sylvatica 'Green Gable'
And even some surprisingly nice fall color on Hydrangea paniculata 'Fire Light'!whaas_5a
4 years agobengz6westmd
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoUser
4 years agoWas a 'Leaf Peeper' out east. I tried to post from my phone
but this site refused to let me post a pic from my phone. < rant off >
So these pics are a week old and things were not quite peak colors. The best colors were at the higher elevations and some were peak but hard to get good pics at 60 mph from the bus. :-)
Hogback mountain in Vermont:
A place called 'Sugar Hill' in New Hampshire:
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
4 years agoClassic New England color, Bill. I was in Bemidji, Minnesota the first week of October, and while the yellows were lovely, there wasn’t nearly the range of colors seen in a New England autumn.
These are starting from October 8 and progressing through last week. None were taken in optimal light, so you will have to imagine that the colors were far brighter in reality.
my side yard looking up to the road from the back field
A few more taken from near the first photo but about a week later.
also looking east toward the road
Turned 90 degrees to the south looking down the edge of the hay field.
Standing across from the house looking north.
We had a nor’easter last night, so all the maples are now bare with the oaks just starting to develop color. I can’t see any beeches from the house, so I don’t know how well they hung onto their leaves.
User
4 years agoIn Minnesota, poplars and pine dominate much of the northern woods, that diminishes the areas showing orange. Plus the flat land elevation doesn't give you view over multiple acreages like the mountains out east do.
I was probably the only one on the bus noticing the beautiful Eastern Hemlocks everywhere. Hemlock Heaven? :-) The seedlings were growing thick as grass around the unmowed areas around the parking lot at a hanging bridge we stopped at in NH. There were many large specimens around the woods including pure stands.
Hemlock near the water by the bridge.
From the Franconia notch tram, White Mountains NH. Many fir trees (balsamea?). Sugar maples down below (orange)
From the observation deck (4300ft+).
bengz6westmd
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoUser
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoMike,I too wondered why I took a picture of such puny trees, then noticed how small the person looked walking down below. :-) Some boulders were the size of pickup trucks. I didn't get any pics of the 'Rocky Gorge', there were cliffs on each side of the stream and steps in the bedrock, with cascading water. View upstream, more tame banks.
Norbert,Nice shades of red on that one! I missed the peak of all my yard trees being gone this year. My Acer rubrum was 50% before I left, now it doesn't have leaves anymore. :-)
Beng,I'm sure there were many trees I passed that I didn't recognize. I thought about seed collecting but didn't want to bring home a bunch of trees that wouldn't survive here, so I stuck to the leaf peeping. :-)
We passed by some commercial sized green houses that covered many acres with multiple buildings that were interesting but didn't stop for. And most of the plant nurseries we saw had season end sales going on.
View of bridge.
sah67 (zone 5b - NY)
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoFirst, a few from my own yard today:
Cotinus obovatus, just starting its show.
Stewartia pseudocamellia
Color from unexpected sources: Hydrangea paniculata 'Fire Light'
sah67 (zone 5b - NY)
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoA few photos I took in the last week at a nearby university arboretum:
Parrotia persica
Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance'
Nyssa sylvatica
Acer triflorum
Mike McGarvey
4 years agoJapanese maple with Fall color in my garden.
Acer palmatum from selected seed.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years agoWhen this thread first started, there was not all that much fall color showing locally. What a difference a month makes! Now the neighborhoods are glowing :-) Still not that much in my garden as most of it is too shaded as well as too many conifers and evergreens to show a lot of color. But most of my Japanese maples are coloring up nicely. It is still pitch dark here but will try to get a photo later.
Friday I was taken on a short road trip for my birthday up into the mountains (to Leavenworth for Mike or others that know the area) and our gloomy weather actually cleared enough to see some spectacular color! Because ours are primarily coniferous forests you do not see the sweeping view of color that you would see back east but pockets of intense color amidst all the green. And along the stream and river banks where more deciduous material thrives as well as the undergrowth.
sah67 (zone 5b - NY)
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoA few more highlights from an evening walk in the university arboretum tonight
Acer japonicum 'Aconitifolium'
Stewartia pseudocamellia
Cotinus obovatus
Cotinus 'Grace'
bengz6westmd
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoBedford PA:
Sugar maple:
YellowWood:
Sassafras pair:
maackia
4 years agoMagnolias generally don't make these types of threads, so I'll give a shoutout to M. sieboldii.
Mike McGarvey
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoCryptomeria japonica 'Elegans Viridis' just starting to turn plum purple. It is green during the Summer. Acer palmatum from seed are turning a nice red.
User thanked Mike McGarveymaackia
4 years agoWe finally had a freeze last night and it was hard. There’s a whole lot of this today:
bengz6westmd
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoNot great pics (the cheap phone & light conditions), but at least alot of orange -- first pondcypress:
Then baldcypresses:
User thanked bengz6westmdarbordave (SE MI)
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agomaackia - your hard freeze migrated here (we had a sustained 28F overnight), and the maple leaves are raining down this morning. But my Emerald City tuliptree is holding onto most of its leaves:
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
4 years agobengz6westmd
4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
mntreegrower
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoFall color, in general, wasn't that great where I live. Too much rain, overnight temps staying too warm, too many cloudy days, too much leaf fungus....probably many factors. That said, most of the sugar maples around here all seem to turn the same light, light orangey-yellow. And it's not all that vibrant some years. Plus the old windbreaks and forest patches are filled with mostly green ash, boxelder, bur oak, and American elm. A lot of ruddy, dirty yellow usually. If it weren't for Autumn Blaze maple and Amur maple, there'd be very little reddish fall color in the landscape. Even most of the local northern red oaks turn yellow instead of red. The soil changes greatly if you drive 15 minutes west or north and so does the fall color usually.
So here's some nursery color:
whaas_5a
4 years agoHad some nice fall color before the snow started to fly!
Stuff is pretty small at my place so I have some things mixed in from the a couple parks I visited.
Seven Son
Wild Sugar Maple
Northern Glow
Acer truncatum
Ginkgo Chi Chi
whaas_5a
4 years agoNorth Wind
Black Chokeberry
Pines can have fall color too!
Frontier Elm
Another North Wind
djacob Z6a SE WI
4 years agoThese pictures were taken before our first freeze and the snow yesterday. Sorry I don’t have names.
mntreegrower
4 years agoSugar maples in old fields that didn't get fertilized all year always color better than those that were pampered. (Also fixed my post from further back.)
I always see the best color when I am driving somewhere and there's no time or spot to pull over and take a pic.Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agothe stump had about 80 rings. I am wondering what our pending 22 degree night will do to the color. The sweetgums behind me (holding the camera) were only maybe 1/4 turned.
L Clark (zone 4 WY)
4 years agowhaas_5a
4 years agoMike McGarvey
4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
Bald Cypress near Seattle in my garden.......and a coupla Japanese maples. The rain pond is not full yet.
Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
4 years ago
It was 24 last night. I thought the little fellow would have been hit harder. Probably about it for the year though. Its gonna be time to show off bark and trunk!
User
4 years agoNot any color here anymore but I couldn't help taking this picture of the sun breaking over a lane in the woods on my place in the country.
whaas_5a