BS: where is the Fall Foliage?

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Thompson
Date: 10 Oct 24 - 06:44 PM

Keboroxu, if you have a ladder (and someone to hold it) and a shopping bag, crab apples are delicious if you pick them, de-stem them, chop them up and make an open tart with them about now, before they've really formed any core. Of course, you can also make apple jelly but that requires a certain amount of foostering round.
And if anyone in the neighbourhood has a deck brush it would be a lovely favour to the neighbours to sweep up the mushed crabs, and maybe donate them to someone who keeps hens, who'll be crazy about them. (The hens crazy about the apples, not the henkeeper crazy about either apples or hens.)

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Oct 24 - 04:19 PM

Now the winds, true autumn winds, are picking up,
and bringing down the leaves in great quantities.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Oct 24 - 07:21 PM

The Leaf Peepers are making their pilgrimages to New England
in their tour buses now.

Meanwhile in New Mexico, a friend sent a photo to me of
the golden aspens in the mountains.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Oct 24 - 11:47 AM

The local crabapple tree is dropping its loads of ripe crabapples.
IT happens to be located between a sidewalk and a driveway,
and now both are littered with mushed-up crabapples,
a menace to walk on.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 25 Sep 24 - 03:30 PM

The leaves are well under way here in the geographical center of Maine.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Sep 24 - 03:34 PM

The maples are starting to turn color now.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Sep 24 - 06:08 PM

The first day of autumn is not that far away,
are people seeing any colorful trees yet?

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 12 Oct 19 - 08:50 PM

Here in RI, I'm starting to worry that we'll have yet another summer when rain and wind will cause the leaves to fall before they reach their peak. The last 3 days have been miserable--not the rain so much as the wind that almost knocks me over, sends unsecured grocery carts skittering across parking lots, makes opening a car door and keeping it open difficult, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: MickyMan
Date: 12 Oct 19 - 01:42 PM

I walked 12 miles of the Appalachian Trail through CT USA
yesterday (Friday OCT 11), and it was GLORIOUS!    The colors are certainly in the Berkshires!

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Oct 19 - 12:41 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Oct 19 - 02:53 PM

A cold night or two --
above freezing, I know, but cold for all that --

and
BANG!
The maples have dropped their chlorophyll, just like that.
Even one big old oak tree is getting in the act;
I mistook the oak, from a distance, for a maple,
and then I got closer
and saw the shapes of the leaves.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 08 Oct 19 - 01:55 PM

I was walking out the other day and saw piles of fallen leaves but no color here in Central NJ.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Oct 19 - 05:07 PM

I'm kind of giving up on fall colors here,
I think when the leaves do fall eventually
they will either be green, brown, or shrivelled dirty yellow,
not the vivid foliage colors of other past years.

Even the maples can't do more than turn
a small part of the leaves on their own trees.
Like a whimper more than a bang.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Kingwood Kowboy
Date: 04 Oct 19 - 09:21 PM

It's in Colorado's Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park. Friday 10-04-2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS2g2DEvGZA

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: leeneia
Date: 02 Oct 19 - 01:08 AM

in school I learned that fall color depends on warm days and cool nights. Where I live, we've had hot weather until a few days ago. I don't know if we'll have much of a display this year.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Oct 19 - 02:15 PM

Can't speak for Northern New England,
as I'm west of Boston,
in the southern half of New England.

There is autumn color in the leaves now, and
having said that, it isn't a lot of color. Yet.
More green in the trees than anything else.

Temperatures are shifting at last, though.
The autumn equinox was embarrassingly warm here, and it has been rainy.

With the chillier nights,
the autumn foliage colors ought to come out to play pretty soon.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 18 Oct 18 - 11:11 PM

Here in RI, I'm still waiting. Thanks for the NH update, Linn. I've been away from this site for a while. I hope things have brightened since you posted.
Nigel Parsons, my ex recently posted an aerial pic of the Kancamagus Highway. I'm glad you got to visit this area when it was dressed in all its glory!

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Oct 18 - 06:14 PM

its in Maine

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Oct 18 - 05:13 PM

falling, falling, falling ...

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 13 Oct 18 - 06:30 PM

ChanteyLass, we still have only fair to middlin' color (if that). I'm a half hour inland from Portsmouth, NH (and uphill). My house is towards the front of a 33 acre piece of woods. I'm surrounded by trees. Halfway down the hill (about a half mile) the houses peter out and it's just trees (except for the slash of the power lines).

Up until earlier this week, most of my trees were still green. The American Basswood had just started dropping its yellow leaves. It's usually the earliest to shed its leaves. Right now most of the trees are gold (with some still green) but maple leaves are starting to seriously litter my driveway and deck. Not a speck of red -- they're all yellow with brown spots and shrivel quickly into brown.

The only color in the neighborhood are the ancient maples in my up the hill neighbor's yard -- and that's more of a dusty maroon red, rather than their usual bright red, orange and touch of gold. Even the color in the marshy area up around the corner (mile and a half from me) is "dusty"...dull reddish and orange-ish.

Not a good year for color. Last year wasn't either, but it was better than this year. And this year I've lost two hemlocks to drought stress. New Hampshire is losing a lot of conifers to drought stress because of their shallow root systems. What I've been noticing is if there's a stand of three conifers, one may be doing just fine, but the other two are losing needles and looking bedraggled, if not actually dead.

There are some bright spots of color on my drive to Portsmouth (or north to Tilton), but not the kind of color leaf peepers have traditionally traveled here to see.

We've been in a drought for over three years. We get rain, but it's not long soaking rains. This summer it's either been a torrential downpour and then over, or a teaser rain just wet enough to mess up outdoor plans without actually helping the garden much.

It's certainly been HUMID, though! Alas, that doesn't do the trees much good. My Trex deck is slimy, the handrails on the steps haven't been dry since June, and my white metal screen door is green.

Nigel, I'm glad you were able to visit areas where there WAS good color. (It's there, but not in the profusion of years past.) I'm about an hour and twenty minutes north of Boston and about the same distance south of the west end of the Kancamagus.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Oct 18 - 02:59 PM

The leaves are leaving the trees for the ground, at last.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 11 Oct 18 - 06:42 PM

Looked pretty good from the Kankamagus Highway this last week.
I'm just back from a road trip (by plane & coach): UK => Dublin => Boston (Mass.). Then Boston 2 days (Including guided tours of Boston, visits to Harvard & to Cape Cod)
Then on: => Salem, Gloucester, Rockport => Lake Winnipesaukee, The Kankamagus Highway,=> North Conway, Vermont, Stowe => Montreal (two nights)including a (long) day trip to Quebec. Then leaving Montreal for Ottawa & Toronto (2 nights) including a visit to Niagara (Canadian side) before flying back to UK.
A great holiday, and the 'fall colours' were amazing.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Oct 18 - 05:24 PM

Most of our trees in the Sierra Foothills are conifers, so we don't have dramatic fall color. Still, it's a very pretty time of year. We've had a bit of rain to clear the air and settle the dust, and many of the plants on the ground are turning various shades of brown. Just now, we drove from our home at 2300 feet to the mining town of Dutch Flat at 3100 feet, and it was a lovely drive through very rugged territory.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Oct 18 - 04:44 PM

Leaves here (suburb of DC) are going from green to brown and then onto my roof & yard. There are a couple of Maple trees that haven't decided yet, but the temp. is supposed to drop 20°F this weekend. Fall is about here however it shows itself.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Oct 18 - 01:18 PM

I took a houseguest on a drive around the county yesterday here in North Texas. We don't get vivid colors like the northeast, but the trees are starting to turn, offering some pleasant hues along the roadside. When there are lots of different types of green in view it is quite pretty.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Oct 18 - 03:28 PM

The limited leaf color this autumn continues to progress.
The red and pink and oranges of the maples, and of various
ornamental trees and creeping vines,
were the first to show up, starting in September.

It is only this week that I am seeing the golden yellow
that always makes autumn autumn to me.
The yellow / golden leaves were slow to get started.

We still have a lot of green on the trees.
A few trees are beginning to brown out.

Not much just yet in the way of falling leaves, but that will change.
For one thing there has been rather little wind.
A brisk autumn wind would alter the picture.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 04:24 PM

Tamson/Ranger1 's earlier post is on the money.
I reserved judgment to watch what happened, and the post is right.

Only, there's detail to it.
It's true that the trees that tend to be gentle and quiet
about turning color, are defaulting to no color, mostly.

The maples, on the other hand, have no competition
and their flaming colors stand out like sore thumbs these days.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 04:48 PM

Stilly, I love that calendar! I now understand why I didn't see much color in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, over the weekend. It looks like I'll see a bit more in western Massachusetts this coming weekend. Best of all, I'll be home when it peaks in Rhode Island.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 10:51 AM

You have to click on the calendar with today's date to see how the leaves have progressed. And this is only New England.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Oct 18 - 09:38 PM

From drought the leaves fall early with less color. In really wet conditions the trees will wait longer with more color and wide growth season rings.


There is less than 1% color in DC

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Sep 18 - 12:57 PM

The maples are turning on the colors. [colours]

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Sep 18 - 09:53 AM

In London you can see splendid colour by taking the treetop walk at Kew Gardens. If you wait till Bonfire night you might see them at their peak.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 10:05 AM

We're in such a depressing cycle of heavy rain and winds that our leaves don't stand a chance, they'll simply be knocked out of the trees and drift up along the curb. I'm in an area where several neighbors big trees drop leaves that land in my yard (I have pines out front). I rake most of them up onto the turf and mulch them in, there's nothing to drive by to enjoy.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 08:29 PM

I'll be driving to the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival in New Hampshire this weekend and to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts next weekend. Neither trip was planned because of the fall foliage, but I'm hoping to see some color along the way.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 07:01 PM

Rap, blood and diamonds are not my thing. Stained bandages YUCK

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 06:48 PM

I've driven through the hardwood forests in Arkanasas, in Kentucky, in Pennsylvania various years, and up in the Catskills and out on Long Island other years and been there in time for wonderful fall color. Good thing they're spread out so not everyone and his brother ends up on the National Park roadways.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 06:35 PM

What with all the rain of the last weeks,
seems the Northeast is making up for lost time.
Things are intensely green hereabouts.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 04:25 PM

An FDR era road called Skyline drive is the place us leaf peepers go.
There are no houses there.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Charmion
Date: 23 Sep 18 - 10:58 AM

The fall foliage is on the trees, except for the bits of it that need sweeping off our deck.

Save a couple of years in Germany, I have lived my whole life in areas so noted for fall colour that in October the roads are cluttered with tour buses loaded with leaf-peepers. I enjoy the colours on a sunny day like today, but sooner or later the wind and rain bring the leaves down in slimy heaps on the deck and the driveway.

Like they say, sic transit gloria mundi, which can be translated: Today's tourist attraction, tomorrow's housekeeping problem.

Sigh.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Sep 18 - 09:51 AM

The leaves are beginning to fall without making much color change here, but then North Texas isn't noted for it's colorful autumn weather.

The most amazing autumn color I saw on a road trip, Joe, was when I drove from Texas to Washington, taking various secondary state highways past national parks. By the time I got to Colorado's Berthoud Pass (whew!) via Route 40 and heading through Utah to Dinosaur and other parks, I was seeing glorious high plateau stands of birch or aspen with white trunks and vivid yellow along the edges of rivers or lakes. I cut over to 395 in Northern California and 139 to 39 to stay on the high plains to the east of Lassen and Shasta and the incredible beauty of those high elevation lakes and forests. I'm pretty sure that was the trip where I also went up through Central Oregon, east of the Cascades, and at Goldendale, Washington, headed up over Blewett Pass that was simply perfect, no other traffic, glorious sunny day, black road with bright yellow lines and trees that were just as yellow as the stripe, but living things stirring in the light breeze in all their glory. I finally joined up with I-90 and headed over Snoqualmie into Seattle. I must have made this drive in about 1983, so some things will have changed along the route, but the terrain, the season, the routes are all still there. Think about a tour like that, Joe.

I didn't take any photos, I wanted to just look at it all and remember the beauty. Sometimes when you mediate through a lens the memories aren't as clear because you're unintentionally letting the film do your remembering.

Another perk of visiting Dinosaur that time of year - it was empty. And I drove up to a picnic area (I can't find it on the map but the drive off of the highway of a mile or so took me to a perch perhaps 1000 feet above the valley) where there was no sound. Nothing. No wind, no birds, no insects, no other people. It was like a roar in my ears, my brain trying to hear something up there. My own breathing, my footsteps, sounds as I prepared lunch. As I continued the drive it was hunting season so I was careful as I drove into the Heber City area and through that canyon, there were lots of trucks and hunters in orange vests. I had my fingers crossed that none of them would be shooting near or across the highway.

Perhaps next time I head up to Washington I'll try to reproduce that route.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: ranger1
Date: 22 Sep 18 - 08:30 AM

Joe, it's not going to be a superb foliage year, so don't feel bad. Drought conditions in the Northeast for most of the spring and summer are going to cause things to be fairly drab here. We're getting a lot of leaf drop before it changes color, or the leaves are going straight to brown. We'll see some color, but nothing like we would have if we'd had decent rainfall.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Sep 18 - 07:41 PM

Dang. I was planning to make a drive across the U.S. to see the foliage this year, but I ended up with obligations that made me cancel the trip.

We do have some fall color here in California, but not like "Back East." The aspens in the eastern Sierra are a spectacular yellow, and the cities have some ornamental trees that turn pretty colors. My Japanese maples will be very nice.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: JennieG
Date: 20 Sep 18 - 06:28 PM

In Ontario, Canada - I am hoping! We'll be there in less than a fortnight.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Iains
Date: 20 Sep 18 - 01:33 PM

Most of the fall foliage near me has gone a good few miles down the road after the recent gales. Some species of tree started changing colour back in August, presumably from heat and drought stress.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Sep 18 - 12:45 PM

Today for the first time
I noticed that one maple tree
is furtively sporting some of those intense dark red leaves
in the midst of a full green foliage.

The summer stayed so hot for so long, and humid as well,
that signs of autumn are doubly welcome here.

The nights are now cooling down, so that will help bring in
the autumn colors on the trees.

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Senoufou
Date: 06 Oct 16 - 05:56 PM

Hahaha! Yes, we're Norfolk n' good Steve!

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Oct 16 - 04:33 PM

Norfolk 'n' good, eh? 😉

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Senoufou
Date: 06 Oct 16 - 02:42 PM

Just looked it up. Yes, he lives in Dickleburgh, South Norfolk.

(All the best people live here you know)

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: Senoufou
Date: 06 Oct 16 - 02:38 PM

Oh I just love Bob Flowerdew Steve. He used to be on Gardeners' Question Time on Radio 4 (He may still be) Very organic in his methods.
He also has a rather nice long plait.
Doesn't he live in Norfolk somewhere? (I ought to know, as I live there myself!)

Subject: RE: BS: where is the Fall Foliage?
From: leeneia
Date: 06 Oct 16 - 01:57 PM

Last year the DH and I took a foliage cruise on the Hudson. The colors were wonderful. The cruise took place at the end of October, not the beginning.

When I was a kid, I learned that warm days and cool nights produce the best colors.