Emery, I see that some of your maples are turning to the Fall colors already, none yet in my garden. I must admit that still do not fully understand how the environmental conditions affect plants. Most people think that temperature is the main trigger for Fall color changes but I have checked the official records for Toulouse and Caen (the closest I found to your place) and in fact it has been colder in Toulouse, we've had several days at 3-4°C. In addition the weather has been perfect here for good Fall colors with chilly nights and bright sunny days. The main difference between Caen and Toulouse is latitude which seems to indicate length of daylight as more important factor than temperature. Do observations in North America corroborate this? Gomero
Re: Japonicum vs. Palmatm Hi Gomero, Fall color is almost finished here, what with the gales that blew through this past weekend. Not entirely true, but quite a few palmatums and macrantha have very few leaves left. This said the forest is unusually colorful this year. Caen is much warmer than here, although we are only 60-ish km south, we can't attempt sub-tropical. You might find records for Alencon, much nearer and with a Meteo France installation. We tend to be a couple of degrees colder than Alencon being on the north side of the massif d'Ecouves. We've had many quite chilly mornings around 5-6 in September; we've been using the wood stove quite a bit already! Coupled with warm sunny days, these cold nights seem the recipe for good fall color. (So I've always been led to believe, anyway). I'm not sure that length of day would be an absolute trigger as fall foliage in New England is never at exactly the same time, there can be a couple of weeks variation. Though of course this could be connected to cloud cover etc. -E
Re: Japonicum vs. Palmatm Aconitifolium is the first to show any fall colour here (except for two plants in pots .... pots always show their fall colouration first, so that might give a clue?) Unfortunately cold winds have shrivelled a lot of leaves this year, so i am not hopeful for any great display ....
Re: Japonicum vs. Palmatm Emery, I have checked Alençon and in fact the records show that in the period from September 18th to 23rd it was colder (with a low of 2.2°C on the 19th) than Toulouse (lowest of 9.5°C in the period). However from the 23rd to today they are pretty much the same (a lowest of 3.4°C for Alençon and 3.5°C for Toulouse). Maybe it was the first period that triggered your colors. Gomero
Re: Japonicum vs. Palmatm Well, then I am wrong with the latitude explanation....... Who could shine some light? Gomero
Re: Japonicum vs. Palmatm near bordeaux (15 km going south) the fall colors appear with of course cold night AND an increase of humidity at the moment we are at the beginning for fall colors even if ozakazuki and maiku kaju are at their best almost nothing for seryu for example i am living here for 5 years now and i am very lucky the fall colors begin with the last week of september and last until mid november
Good idea to create a separate thread. Overall in Western Europe we seem to have a rather early Fall. I was wondering if this was the same in Japan. The dates for the Maple Symposium were chosen, as I understand, to coincide with the peak in Fall colors there. It would be nice if anybody from Japan reading the forum could reassure us on this. Gomero
