Fall Color in Northern Virginia

It has been a beautiful fall here in Virginia! It seem like we often get hit with a spell of cold weather that turns everything overnight and then a cold and windy storm that blows all the leaves to the ground after 1 week. This year there has been a beautiful transition from one tree to the next.

I will start off with the pretty picture of my 'Crimson Queen' Japanese maples (there are two planted near each other). The fall color was not spectacular, but nice. This picture was from a week ago.

- Brent

Here is a young Cornus florida. This is the first time I have been the owner of a dogwood, and I have never really appreciated the nice fall color.

- Brent

I am posting this picture of my neighbor's maple out of spite. I moved into a new house in the spring, so this fall display is all new to me. I have a medium sized maple in the front yard and 4 other small ones. One of the 5 had decent fall color. The others quickly turned a dull orange and shed their leaves. My neighbor's tree turned red while mine were still green and has stayed red now that mine are bare.

- Brent

An how about this perfect tree...pretty flowers in the spring, early spring green-up, pretty green leaves all summer and pretty fall color. It is even developing a lot of fruits for the birds. ;-)

- Brent

And here is another of the 3 pears (I have to assume they are 'Bradford') that I inherited. The third one (not pictured) is a wonderful specimen because it was planted 8' from the side of my house so all the branches on one side have been lopped off.

- Brent

Brent,
Those are some beautiful specimens ...I wonder if you know that the reds in leaf color are as I understand it primarily activated by temperature.
OT - The suggestion that dh should be called trun has really improved the quality of my life...there is nothing like a little sarcasm to keep a 28 year old marriage together.
kt

Brent, lovely colour and forms, you are so lucky to have enough space around you to have large trees.

Runk:

Glad to hear that the therapy is "kicking in".

Brent:

New shingle to hang up at DG -- Gardening Relationship Counselor. I see big bucks.

Edited to say I appreciate the great pictures as well. Keep the lopping up, and that pear will really shine! The basal pruning effects the best result.

Then you'll have room for those viburnums you always wanted...

This message was edited Nov 16, 2006 6:59 AM

I have been debating about the pears since I moved in. I would love to just remove them, but my right now they are about the only trees of any size in my backyard. We are supposed to get wind gusts of up to 60 mph today...so maybe Mother Nature will take care of them for me. My house was built in 1993 and the neighborhood is full of pear trees. Some of them are pretty large and I have seen a couple of them loose large limbs. I am sure a heavy ice storm would take out a lot of trees.

Yep...I planted 7 Viburnums at the old place in the past few years...I need to plant a couple at the new place.

- Brent