Fall Color on the Coast

It's not hopeless. What do you all have in your yards that turns pretty colors? Attached is a pictures of a sweet gum from this morning.

Jenny

And the dirty little secret about invasive species... they're pretty. Here are cottonwood/chinese tallow trees that are a little past their peak color.

We need rain!!!!!!!!!!!! You can see how low my pond is, but at least we have a little water in it.

Jenny

Cool pix Jenny. I don't have any photos but the Crape Myrtles are looking right pretty these days too.

Ditto on the we need rain; my soil is like concrete. I don't think the "best time to plant is in the Fall" will hold true this year. And, we are only supposed to be in a moderate drought. I can't imagine what everyone else is experiencing.

crepe myrtles do look nice... ours is just now changing. we have a wild Winged Sumac (Rhus copalliana) that has nice fruit and leaves, but it is small. all other trees are evergreens in my yard

Bradford Pear (as you see), the gum trees, and of course, the Virginia Creeper (speaking of invasive). :)
Everything else either hasn't turned or just dropped leaves. Stupid drought.
Deb

I had a few sweet gums and I have to say they have great fall color and are a plant and forget plant. Only problem in my yard was i didn't plant them. LOL. Same with maples, they just spring up wherever they want. I really did have a serious thought about selling those two over the internet if there is a market.

Hey Jenny!
Hope you and your family are well.
The maples around here are fired up! Wish I had some pics to post. How about it nc folks?
Bev

the tallows i have seen here have been pretty disappointing

For some reason, (drought, maybe?), the leaf color in my little corner of Charleston, SC has been the most vibrant in the 20 years since we've been here! The nasty Popcorn trees (Sapium seberiferum) actually are "glowing" in a golden yellow in the afternoon sunlight. The Sweet Gums (Liquidamber, spp) which I personally HATE, are all aglow in truly vibrant reds and yellows, similar to what I've experienced many times in the northeastern U.S. as a kid. Even the Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstromia spp), and Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quincefolia---a real pest!) have taken on bold colors this year. But I've also noticed very quick leaf drop this year. Those beautifull colors only seemed to last a week to10 days at best, and it's almost over. But man, it was beautiful while it lasted! Never saw that much color in the fall in my 40+ years in the south!

i know.... up in Lexington, SC it was awesome... living in the south all my life, it is some of the most color i have seen... just this year, the tallows are not like the ones i remember last year

This message was edited Nov 22, 2007 10:18 PM

My brother had his wedding up around Lake Placid NY at just about high season. Awesome sight, all the mountains all "colored up". I think that was the best leaf turning I have ever seen. If I remember right it was the first week in October. 2003 I think.

In case your wondering I had a good T-day, just got back from the Emergency room. Little rug rats were playing a little ruff today.

i've been there... me and brother on a sled on a mountain around christmas... what happened if you dont mind me asking?

Hope all are OK. ?????
Nothing like a little excitement on the holidays.......

My son who is 4 got kicked in the crotch by another 4 year old. I didn't think much about till we got home and he was in the bathroom saying his wee wee hurt. Short story, half his "wee wee" was purple black and swelling. Off to the ER. Looks like no major damage but it did get whacked pretty hard. Hopefully this doesn't cause a problem down the road for him. He's out running around so it hasn't slowed him down.

CoreHHI: Poor little guy! That won't be his favorite T-giving memory.

I've noticed the gum trees are much brighter this year, too. The pin oaks, thought, that usually go bright yellow, seem to have just dropped leaves - went green straight to brown.

Deb

Ditto here, Deb. None of the oaks showed much color, but everything else here seems to be absolutely glowing. Like never before! What are we, maybe 20 miles apart? How can 20 miles make a difference? We ain't got Mother Nature figured out yet... Personally don't think we'll ever figure her out, so I've quit trying... Just go with the flow...It'll change tomorrow (hopefully with some gentle, persistent rain)!!!

Here's a little more color from our "neck of the woods".
Deb

Wow! That's colorful! Is that red one a Sumac? I'm not believing the color this fall! Even the Cassia's seem to have gotten in the mood---more flowers than ever...

Stono: Ya know, I don't know what that red one is. It's growing wild across the road from me.
Deb

These little succulents are wearing their fall colors also.

Deb, that red one does look like a sumac; they are so pretty this time of year.

what are those?

LOL, chew on this one: Brophyllum gastonis-bonnieri or Mules Ears is the one with the large leaves. It is a sedum that is not very cold tolerant but they make little baby sedums along the edges of the leaves and they fall off into the mulch and do fine through the winter and pop up again in the spring for me. The one with the skinny leaves (?) is something I picked up beside the beach in south FL one year; it is supposed to be invasive there but our cooler weather seems to keep it in check. I do not have an ID on that one.

it sure is nice!

Geez, ardesia, that's a dilly! I HATE these Latin names, but it's the ONLY way to keep 'em straight. But then the danged botanists keep changing them, too! Cassia is now Senna, Michelia is now Magnolia...when does this naming madness stop?? Is it a politically correctness thing???

LOL, might be.

I hate it when I am a docent on a garden tour and I give out one name and someone always says my grandmother always called it something else. Justicia/Jacobinia is another pain in the patootie.

Well ardesia, you've obviously "been there, done that..." I think it might be a simple "one-upmanship" by the namers. I think they may get points on some obscure scoreboard for selling the community on changing the name. I've become somewhat cynical about these "Power Plays" after my years in corporate America, and watching American Politics...

Recently I heard Allan Armitage speaking on common names and how important is it to appreciate how they came about. Did you know Obedient plant is so called because the individual flowers can be moved to a different direction and they will stay there. Toad lily has small warts on the base of the flower thus it's name. He had a bunch of others I can't remember right now. His take is we should all lighten up because it really doesn't matter what you call a plant.

I'm with him, Ardesia. :) I try to remember and use the scientific names, but the common names are so much more fun and descriptive.

I like to stick with the common names. Main reason being I only read about this stuff and never hear them spoken. English is not my strong subject and then throw Latin names in, trouble. LOL. I'm one of those guys who got a perfect score on the math part of the SAT and mid pack on the English. I also screwed up the curve in my college physics classes. You should see my brothers writing. Haha. Guy has a MBA from Cornell and his writing looks like a second grader. He's dyslexic and I think I might be a little too. Not sure how you can tell if your dyslexic, it's like how do you know you’re insane? That's what secretaries are for, to get your scribbings into a well thought out essay.

latin names seem easiest to me... but i did take latin in the 8th grade.... 2 yrs ago. i use common names when i try not to sound like a nerd.....

It's like wine tasting which I have done a lot of. I'm talking in the range of trying 1000 wines in a year. I talk in very basic terms unless I'm at a wine tasting or talking to people who know what they're talking about. My favorite thing is to run into someone who knows little about wine but tries to talk a big game. I can crush them and make them look like a total fool if I feel like it. I don't do that unless they are really being annoying, did it once to some trophy wife who bought a winery. She tried to talk up her wine but she was clueless. She was a bad salesman on top of it. Don't run with the big dogs unless your a big dog.

yeah it ia fun in a mean way to do that sometimes... but some people need it

I agree we should all lighten up a bit, ardesia! And I knew the derivation of "obedient plant". I've grown them for years. But none of them have been "obedient" for me! (all from the same stock). No matter how I twisted or turned them, within minutes they went back to their original position. I think that's where the Latin names might be useful---when you're trying to research a problem or answer a question. My particular Physostegia (gifted; just labeled "obedient plant") is very disobedient. But I have no clue as to which Physostegia I'm dealing with. Suspect it's P. pulchella (native to east Texas) because it never get's more than 2' tall, but I'm just guessing. Some varieties of P. virginiana don't get much taller. Maybe the other Physostegias really ARE obedient, and pulchella isn't? Or maybe transplanting an east Texas native to the South Carolina climate/soils changed the characteristics of the plant? I really can't begin to figure it out until I know what plant I'm dealing with, and since all Physostegias are commonly called "Obedient Plants", where do I start?
Now you may wonder why I care about such a trivial thing. I truly don't know! I guess it's just because "it's there", waiting a definitive answer...

LOL, I never tried to twist the Obedient plants because I won't grow them - they are so disobedient!

The downside of common names, especially living in the Lowcounrty where everyone comes from someplace else, is that different plants are called different names in different parts of the country. There are many different plants known as Dusty Miller or Creeping Jenny out there. (enough "differents" there? LOL)

Ah, Stono~Obedient plant, eh? I have p. virginiana...Not obedient at all....want some;-) I'll send it as payback for the ruellia, LOL! Runs like a champion linebacker!
BTW, did you see the wolfpack vs. pirates bball game?!
Bev