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Fall color ... trees and shrubs, what's looking good?

FrozeBudd_z3/4
16 years ago

Wish I had pics to share, but this is what's showing off in my yard now:

Purchased just this spring, acer 'Prairie Splendor' is a hardy selection of 'Crimson King', and has changed from it's deep maroon summer coloring to a lighter flame red / orange ... looks awesome with the sun shining through it! Next year, I intend to pick up another one (or even two) of these!

Acer 'Autumn Spire', also new to me, it has very bright red coloring ... though, this one has not proven hardy in many locations, wish me luck!

Acer ginnala 'Fireball' ... great color on a dwarf form.

Of course the species shrubs, pincherries, chockcherries, saskatoons, dogwoods, cranberries and wild roses.

What's showing off for you?

Terry

Comments (24)

  • north53 Z2b MB
    16 years ago

    Funny you should ask!
    I was looking out my window around 6 pm today and commented on how beautiful the nannyberry looked. Earlier I noticed my new dwarf cranberry taking on a reddish hue.

  • valleyrimgirl
    16 years ago

    I, too, looked outside in awe today. This is the view as I looked out my living room window at the beauty of the Assiniboine River valley below us. Here are a few pictures I took just after supper. The first one is going to be my desktop picture for the next while.

    See the combine on the field?

    Brenda

  • marciaz3 Tropical 3 Northwestern Ontario
    16 years ago

    I was noticing the gorgeous colours on the way home this afternoon - it would have been spectacular if the sun was out! It seems that the fall colours are just about at their peak, maybe in another week.

    In the garden, both my eunonymous shrubs are turning bright red and the geranium Orion is beginning to. It had great fall colour two years ago but not last year for some reason.

  • northspruce
    16 years ago

    Marcia, my fall colour was bad last year too! I wondered if it was just my imagination.

    Yesterday my Virginia Creeper started turning. The day before it was green, yesterday it was dull red so it must be getting ready to do its thing.

    I'm looking forward to the Amur maple, cotoneasters and Euonymus alatus turning soon too. I think the leaves are late this year, I guess it was cool and moist at the end of August which keeps em green for longer.

  • marciaz3 Tropical 3 Northwestern Ontario
    16 years ago

    I don't have Virginia Creeper but it was turning down at the waterfront on Saturday - it's leftover from a house that used to be there, crawling through everything!

    I meant to mention - Brenda, your view is spectacular!

  • valleyrimgirl
    16 years ago

    Thank you, Marcia. Anytime you are driving out this way, feel free to drop by and I will show you around.

    Brenda

  • snowguy716
    16 years ago

    Things are really starting to turn here. The ashes are a nice yellow along with the elms, and many of hte birches are turning as well. The maples are starting to fire and there is a lot of orange and red.

    Also, the bur oaks are really changing, but they're not that spectacular with mostly yellows and browns. The red and pin oaks are turning a nice crimson red. We're still waiting for the aspen to turn, but they usually wait a while and late fall is dominated by red oaks, aspen, and tamarack.

  • Crazy_Gardener
    16 years ago

    Looking around I love the colours of and berries of

    Amur Maples
    Cotoneaster
    Dogwoods
    Golden Elders
    Hawthorn is beautiful at this time of year
    High Bush Cranberry
    Ninebark Diablo
    Roses, especially Therese Bugnet
    Sandcherry
    Schubert Chokecherry
    Serviceberry
    Showy Mountain Ash
    Thunderchild Crabapple
    Virginia Creeper

    I'm going to have to get myself a Euonymus alatus next spring!

    Sharon

  • northspruce
    16 years ago

    I meant to say too Brenda what a beautiful view you have - probably one of the lucky few in Manitoba who gets to look out over the edge of anything - LOL.

    This is the one time of year I actually like Manitoba Maples (Acer negundo)... they are such a clear yellow and the bark looks black. I can almost forgive them for giving me pneumonia last spring. >:0(

  • FrozeBudd_z3/4
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Brenda, such an AWESOME view you have there!

    snowguy716, you really have a broader range of trees that color up ... I'm wondering if red and pin oaks are tough enough to stand up to our prairie winters? Maybe, someone might know?

    I've been seeing many plantings of those new compact Euonymus, hope this one proves hardy. I also love the mountain ashes and the very brillant colors of the cotoneaster. The tamarack finishes off the season ... then, we're forced to look at a bleak landscape for ever so MANY months ... I really need to be planting more evergreens!

    Terry

  • don555
    16 years ago

    Yes, Brenda certainly does have a spectacular window view.

    Terry, I only know of one red oak in my Edmonton neighbourhood. It has survived for at least several years now, and seems to be healthy, but is only 6 or 7 feet tall. I haven't seen it get much fall colour because the leaves are usually very green when the really hard frosts hit, so they go directly from green to brown, and stay on the tree for well into the winter. Maybe it isn't in the best spot though? -- hard to tell with a sample size of just one.

    I don't know of any pin oaks locally.

    Bur oak is very common though as an ornamental, and increasingly as a boulevard tree.
    -Don

  • snowguy716
    16 years ago

    I think Red Oak would grow in Edmonton, especially if you kept it watered for the first few years. If you get a few light frosts early, the tree will change to a beautiful burgundy, especially if the summer has been cool. A hard freeze will just turn the leaves brown. In our climate, frosts are common as early as the first week of September, but getting below 28*F (-2.5*C) is not common until October, so our trees change more gradually than they probably do where you live. In central and southern Minnesota, fall colors are a spectacle dragged out over ages.. it seems to last forever down there... while we go from lush green to barren in a couple weeks.. and that's probably still slow compared to you guys.

    Where I live is in the Temperate deciduous/boreal forest transition, so we have all major tree species of the boreal forest along with many species of the eastern hardwood forests. The reason we get so cold and are part of zone 3 is because of our forests... it keeps the wind from blowing during the coldest parts of the year, and the temperature plummets... to -55*C as recently as 1996 in parts of Minnesota.

    But we get our share of windy winter storms.. but it is still invariably better than west of here where drifts bury houses.

  • prairierose
    16 years ago

    There was a beautiful sight today on the way to work - a Schubert chokecherry next to a much larger green ash. The combination of burgundy and bright yellow was lovely.

    Connie

  • Laurie_z3_MB
    16 years ago

    I don't remember my Ohio Buckeye being quite this colourful last year.

    I'm sure once it grows up, it'll be a beautiful fall specimen.

    I'm also loving the colour coming on the Pagoda dogwood.

    And one of my favorites has to be the sumac. It's just starting to colour up, so I'm hoping that we don't get a really hard fr*** that kills all the leaves too soon.

    Laurie

  • garden_chicken
    16 years ago

    Laurie, I'm glad to see your photo of the Ohio Buckeye. We just purchased one for our front yard (or maybe backyard?) without having a lot of information to go on other than what little I've read in Lois Hole's book & what the lady at the nursery told us. I read somewhere it is an 'underused' landscape tree. Hope it turns out to be hardy enough here.
    Does anyone else here have one??

    We just got back from Yukon & NWT, the fall colours were just on the decline. It seemed most of the leaves had already fallen the alpine birch. Still mighty spectacular though!

  • FrozeBudd_z3/4
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Don and Snowguy, I only know of one red oak in a neighbour's yard and it has always struggled with dieback. Though, with many plants having been grown from seed, hardiness will vary. I'd be inclined to give such a tree a try and place it within a protected area of my yard. Another challenge is our often cool Alberta summers, we often don't receive the heat units and thus borderline trees just don't properly ripen off before the deep freeze arrives ... then there's our extreme fluctuating winter temps! Snowguy, thank you for telling us about your climate, I can't help but be a bit envious of the lingering color you enjoy!

    Laurie, your Ohio buckeye is especially beautiful, mine had always turned an unattractive yellow brown color and then immediately dropped it's leaves ... though, just the same, this really is a beautiful and under used tree! I WISH I could find this particular variety.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Autumn Splendor Ohio buckeye

  • snowguy716
    16 years ago

    We had a few frosts which really set the trees into fall mode, and now it has warmed up and we got lots of rain, so the colors are turning out beautifully.

    The ash have lost most of their leaves, but the maple, oak, and birch are really starting to put on a show. The Aspen is starting to change and the Tamarack are starting to lighten up a bit. With no really cold weather in the forecast, we should continue to have some beautiful colors!

  • Laurie_z3_MB
    16 years ago

    I've actually got 2 Ohio Buckeyes, and only the one(pictured above) had the nice burgundy leaves this year. The other one just seemed to go straight to brown and crispy. I've had one for 4 winters and the other for 3. We're out in the country, and they do get the winter winds, so GC, I'd say they're pretty hardy. This summer, we had some tours come through the garden and there were quite a few comments about these trees. I just wish that they were a little faster growing.

  • garden_chicken
    15 years ago

    Well, here we are again! It looks like the colours are a little earlier this year.
    I'm really pleased with our Ohio Buckeye. It had no leaves at the time it was planted last fall so this is a pleasant surprise. It's certainly the most colorful tree in our immediate vicinity. Can you see the little conkers on it? (Excuse the lovely fencing, the pile of rocks & the ugly concrete swale, it's all a work in progress... whew)

    {{gwi:776691}}

  • FrozeBudd_z3/4
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Garden chicken, your photo and the one Laurie had earlier posted look amazing! When I moved, I was forced to leave my Ohio buckeye behind, it was just a bit too big to dig and I didn't want to kill myself trying! Mind you, the foilage had not turned to anything other than an anattractive yellowish brown.

    Here's one I hope soon comes to the market here, it's called 'Autumn Splendor'

    Here is a link that might be useful: Ohio buckeye 'Autumn Splendor'

  • prairierose
    15 years ago

    We don't have much color in the garden yet, but the aspens, poplars and saskatoons are starting to change in the valleys - all gold and red-orange.
    Connie

  • marciaz3 Tropical 3 Northwestern Ontario
    15 years ago

    It's about the same here. It's a little late this year, just like everything else was. :)

  • njbiology
    14 years ago

    Has anyone here tasted pincherry or chokecherry jelly?

    I'm thinking of growing one of the two for jelly. If chokecherry, my concern is that it may die of x-disease and spread that to the sweetcherry tree i have.

    I'm also concerned about growing pincherry on a site that only gets 6 hours sunlight and this only from the south (not east or west).

  • FrozeBudd_z3/4
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    njbiology, both these jellies are intensely flavored, definitely among our favorites and very well received by those in which it is served ... very DELICIOUS !

    Other than a bit of black knot, which can be pruned away, I have not had much of a problem with either tree.

    Six hours of sunlight will be just fine.

    Wild chockcherries in the front yard :)

    Terry