After spring, autumn is my second favourite season to view Japanese maples. The fleeting yet intense colours have a hint of decay about them, and almost seem to glow on dull October afternoons. Anyone care to share photos of fall colour this year? If so please post in this thread. Here is one to start with, container grown green dissectum, unknown cultivar, about 15 years old and absolutely glowing this year:
Thank you maf - It is dark outside right now, but I will take a picture of our Katsura tomorrow and post it I was in our local shopping mall with our daughter after school today and she commented on the variation of color on the maples planted in and around there. "I now know where artists get their color combinations from!"
Thanks. Some trees are in full autumn colour here and others are only just starting, we've had several nights of 4-5C temps but no real frosts yet. Here are some more: Ichigyoji: Kinran: A dissectum sold to me as 'Sunset' but likely not that cultivar: A seedgrown plant:
2 sudden nights of low 20's (F) did my trees in. Leaves are all wilted and weepy looking... Likely no fall color here in Colorado. Bummer. Tom
We have managed to dodge the frost here in our little coastal strip, though it has frosted heavily just a few miles inland. The finest display has been from a little Acer triflorum.
It is generally accepted that the change of colors in the Fall is triggered by shortened day duration (that explains Maf's colors) and low temperatures. However there must be something else. Last week I was in Portland: latitude 45° N, with some nights in the upper 30's, low 40's, many maples had started to change colors (as well as other deciduous shrubs and trees). I got home: latitude 45° N, with some nights in the low and upper 30's and not a single tree or shrub with the slightest hint of initiating color change. Climate in both places is similar with mild oceanic influence albeit with much more rainfall in Portland (which should imply the opposite: drought stressed trees in my area should start to shed their leaves earlier!!!); Any thoughts anybody? Gomero
If you go to Google Earth you see that heights in Portland vary between 8m and 100m above sea level while Toulouse is between 135m and 200 m above sea level. In fact I checked in Wikipedia and the weather tables for the two cities are remarkably similar as shown in the attached document. This morning the minimum temperature in my garden was 31°F, and still no hint of color....., I wonder if Maf has already had freezing temps or it is only the latitude that does it Gomero
Nope, no freezing temps yet, my outdoor tomato plants are still alive and well! (If not ripening any longer). There is an amateur weather station about five miles from my house, at a marginally higher elevation above sea level, and the minimum recorded there so far this autumn is 1.7C, on Saturday night I think. Many (but by no means all) of the street and garden trees of various species planted locally are now turning. Today I was walking along a street in town lined with mature Birch trees and the very gentle breeze led to a light fall of yellow/orange leaves that reminded me of confetti as the small leaves drifted earthwards from a great height. Gomero, you have a longer growing season than we have here so it is no surprise that my plants are colouring before yours, but I cannot offer a firm explanation for the difference between Toulouse and Portland. Perhaps the PNW had a drier than usual summer or some other stress factor, or perhaps different soil types lead to different levels of sugar production in the leaves, or even there might be more bright vs cloudy days at this time of year in SW France compared to PNW so the leaves retain their chlorophyl longer? Just some thoughts, possible ideas, no science to back them up or anything. Another thought: I believe from reading your posts, Gomero, that you use an automatic watering system, maybe this protects your trees from much in the way of moisture stress and maybe reduces the autumn display. We know that stressed (but not too stressed) trees produce the best and longest lasting fall colours. Hopefully nobody else will suffer the misfortune seen by tjcher this autumn in Colorado - bummer indeed. Even the baby maples are trying to get in on the act here:
Daniel - Thanks and Wow! Is it acceptable to copy some pix just to keep in my personal file? If not, I won't. But I am now more determined to get one of these beauties.
I'm not responsible for granting permission to use other people's photographs. The polite thing to do would be to communicate with the individuals directly, where possible.
With respect Daniel I think you've given a link to the "Golden Full Moon Maple, " A. shirasawanum 'Aureum'. The "Full Moon Maple" usually just refers to A. japonicum the species. Now the forum doesn't seem to have a good picture of this tree, nor in its fall colours, but here is a link to the thread for the very similar japonicum 'Vitifolium,' with several fall colour pictures that will be similar if not identical to the Full Moon Maple. Hope this helps, (and I did it right!) http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=6666 -E
Here are some early fall color samples from my garden. I missed Ukigumo and Viridis and Green Cascade already, many more have yet to start turning. photos are, in order: a chance seedling A.p. 'Ariadne' A.p. diss 'Eagle Claw' a shot of the nursery. There's an unknown A. shirasawanum, Baby Lace, and I think komon nishiki and karasugawa.
Here's my unknown cultivar - now in full autumn glory - end of Sept versus today, plus two shots of another unknown cultivar. Andrew
Heres a few from this year. 'Ariadne, 'Shigitatsu sawa', Persion Ironwood, baby 'Mikawa yatsubusa', 'Matsukaze'. I know we're talking maples here, but I liked the picture of the Ironwood so I thought I would share it. Cirque
Thank you Maf for your comments, you are much higher north than either Portland or Toulouse. Around here, all trees and shrubs, whether they are in the garden and watered or out there in the forests under drought stress, behave the same in terms of (lack of) fall coloring so far. By looking more carefully to the weather data posted above, it seems that there is a consistent difference in the average low temperatures which are, depending on the month, 1 to 2 °C warmer in Toulouse than in Portland. As for the others temps: average highs are close enough and record lows are comparable. This small difference must explain the 2-3 weeks separation in Fall coloring between the two locations. I suspect that it must also result in 2-3 weeks separation in leafout in Spring. Unless someone with more knowledge gives an alternative explanation. By the way, finally today some maples in my garden are showing some change: Acer x freemanii and Acer shirasawanum 'Jordan' ;o))), roughly two and a half weeks behind Portland. Gomero Gomero
That sounds logical gomero, night temperatures are an important influence on fall colour. You are fortunate really, having to wait a little longer for autumn colours is a small price to pay for the benefit of earlier spring leafout. (I looked up our local average temps and the average lows are about 3°C less than in Toulouse during September and October. There is a bigger difference for the average highs. Due to the latitude the angle of sun is worse, but the difference in day length is minimal at this time of year, it is still close to the equinox.) Thanks to Cirque, Acermad and slickhorn for posting their pictures, all wonderful! Here are some more photos from my own little collection, two pictures of 'Wou nishiki' taken three days apart: 'Coonara pygmy', 'Shigitatsu sawa' looking atypical yellow and another seedgrown plant: 'Katsura' for LilSprout who mentioned it earlier in the thread, and 'Ichigyoji':
Hello all, Here is my Acer japonicum 'Fairy Lights' that I have a little bit over two years. I think it’s grown a whole inch since then. I finally have my first digital camera and had to grab the summer to autumn transition of this little baby that took place between 9-19 and 10-20. I have more pics of this transition and it was hard to pick out just a few. Elle
There was a request for acer j. Aconitifolium -- here's a shot, plus one of Red Pygmy and a sunburned Tsuma Gaki
ekbnw, Your 'Fairy Lights' is 3x the size of mine. Just beginning to get color here. My small trees pretty much all just dropped their leaves w/o showing any real color. 'Hogyoku' is reliable for me and it does get to that pumpkin-y orange sometimes. I wonder if 'Red Dawn' was named for fall color ??? The other plant is a tree that squirrels gnawed off at the graft and this is what grew back. Is it just understock? I've never been sure. It's bushy and vigorous.