Fall Beauty from Shade Trees
- • Garlic sets can be planted now for an easy crop that you can harvest next spring. Choose from hard-neck, soft-neck or Elephant garlic varieties now available.
- • Plant cover crops in the garden where summer plants have finished. Fava beans and crimson clover will grow through the winter and improve your soil for spring planting.
- • Plant pansies, snapdragons, stock, calendulas and primroses now to replace summer annuals.
- • Divide overgrown water lilies and irises. Repot using heavy soil with no organic matter or packaged Aquatic Planting Medium.
- • Crocus and daffodils announce the arrival of spring if you plant them now. Choose from a variety of colors and bi-colors available now.
Fall Beauty from Shade Trees
Fall is a wonderful time to plant trees. It gives them a chance to sink their roots into the soil over the winter so they are ready to make the most of the spring growth spurt. The cold nights of fall bring beautiful colors to the leaves of deciduous trees. Liquidambar, maples, Chinese pistache, Raywood ash, European white birch, dogwoods and flowering pear trees brighten the landscape with their colorful leaves. Now is a good time to choose trees that have fall color.
When choosing a tree, it is important to determine just how large a tree you want. Width is easy to measure and for height, figure that a building is about 10 feet tall per story, plus attic height. So a one-story house may be 15 to 20 feet tall, and a two-story house 25 to 30 feet tall. Most trees are at least 30 feet tall and some grow to 60 feet or more, providing good shade over the roof for summer cooling.
Liquidambar and European white birch are both tall, slender trees. White birch trees grow to 45 feet tall with a spread of 30 feet. They turn bright yellow or green and yellow in the fall. Their white bark is particularly attractive in winter.
Liquidambar trees grow to 60 feet tall with a narrow pyramidal form. Their fall colors range from yellow, peach and orange to red and burgundy. They are tall, stately trees which make good street trees where overhead wires are not a problem.
Chinese pistache is a round-headed tree that turns bright red in autumn. It is the most eye-catching tree around right now. It grows to 60 feet tall and 50 feet wide.
Raywood ash trees are fast-growing with fine-textured foliage making a dense, rounded crown. They grow to 35 feet with a 25-foot spread and turn a beautiful reddish-purple color in fall.
October Glory Red Maple is a beautiful, round tree growing 40 feet tall. Its glossy, green foliage turns a brilliant deep red to reddish purple in the fall, lasting for several weeks. It takes summer heat well but needs summer watering. Autumn Fantasy Maple is a large, fast-growing shade tree that consistently shows very good fall color. They are bright rose-red now and very eye-catching.
Flowering pear trees are known for their beautiful white spring blossoms as well as their bright red fall foliage. They grow to 35 feet tall with a 25-foot spread, and turn color late in the fall season, holding their colorful leaves most of the winter.
Dogwood trees are beautiful small trees growing 20 feet tall and wide. In spring, white, pink or red blossoms cover the tree and in fall their round leaves turn beautiful shades of red. Japanese maples are another small tree with delicate green or red leaves throughout the summer which turn a bright scarlet in the fall.
Trees are such an important part of any landscape that one must give plenty of thought to finding just the right one. Fall gives you the opportunity to become acquainted with some new and interesting specimens that may prove to be that special one you’ve been looking for.
Enjoy the beauty of fall with colorful trees in your landscape.
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