Early Fall Colors
If you live in an area where foliage changes with the seasons, you know how exciting and beautiful this time of year can be.
I love autumn and although the season hasn't yet hit its peak here in Bedford, New York, the changing leaves are providing lots of fall color. I've planted hundreds of trees at my farm, so it's a fantastic place to take in the season's changes and enjoy all it has to offer.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here, the changing leaves haven’t quite peaked yet, but the fall foliage is already looking so pretty around the farm. Some trees change early, others late – usually from October to November in the Northeast.
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- Because of changes in the length of daylight and changes in temperature, leaves stop their food-making process. The chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears, and the yellow to gold and orange colors come out and give the leaves part of their fall splendor. London plane trees are among the first to change color in fall from a deep green to yellow brown.
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- The perimeter around my paddocks displays such wonderful shades of orange, yellow, amber, brown, and green. I love the layers of color created by the changing leaves. Although some autumn coloration occurs wherever deciduous trees are found, the most brightly colored foliage is seen in Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia, northern and western Europe, the Caucasus region near the Black Sea, Russia, eastern Asia, Argentina, Chile, southern Brazil, Korea, Japan, and New Zealand’s South Island. Here is my grove of American beech trees.
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- The American beech, Fagus grandifolia, is native to eastern North America and turns a pretty golden-bronze in fall.
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- Persian parrotia or Persian ironwood is a small upright tree or large, rounded, multi-stemmed shrub. It is related to witch-hazel. The oblong green leaves turn various shades of red, orange and yellow in the fall, often persisting into the winter months.
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- Here are the weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus Pendula, on one side of my “soccer field” where my grandson plays whenever he visits. I love these weeping hornbeams – the branches of these trees gracefully weep creating an umbrella of foliage that reaches the ground. Look closely, the leaves are changing – the foliage turns a bright yellow color in fall.
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- Up close, one can see the seed catkins hanging from the branches, holding about 10 to 30 seeds each.
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- Cotinus, the smoke bush, has large round leaves and spectacular autumn color. These leaves are turning scarlet red.
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- For fall color, the sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua, is hard to beat. Its glossy green, star-shaped leaves turn fiery shades of red, orange, yellow and purple in the fall.
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- Here’s a view through the woodland. Many of these trees are deciduous, meaning they tend to seasonally shed their leaves after showing off their brilliant fall colors.
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- These sugar maples above my tree peony garden bed also display gorgeous color in fall – the leaves turn vibrant shades of yellow, burnt orange, and red.
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- These lindens are already turning too. This linden allee runs from the old corn crib to my allée of boxwood.
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- I extended the allee in 2017. I loved the linden tree allee so much, I decided to extend it all the way down to the chicken coops – I am so pleased with how well it is growing. In time, this section will be as full as the original half.
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- Here is one of many Japanese maple trees at my farm and one of the two I planted in 2019 after taking down six large evergreens from this area.
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- My pin oaks, Quercus palustris, have done so well. They are so easy to grow and maintain – they are popular landscape trees.
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- Looking up, these pin oaks are just starting to turn color. The leaves are changing to yellow and reddish bronze. Once its fall color display is done, pin oaks often retain brown leaves, which persist on the trees through winter.
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- The pin oak also has an interesting growth habit, with pendulous lower branches, horizontal middle branches, and upright upper branches. Pin oaks normally reach 60 to 70 feet tall but can reach heights of 100 feet.
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- Here are more maples outside my main greenhouse. Maple fall colors range from yellow to orange to red.
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- Not far is this striking burning bush shrub with fiery scarlet foliage just starting to show. This bush is as low-maintenance as it is dazzling, making it exceptionally easy to grow as either a single specimen plant or in a grouping.
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- My Stewartia garden across from the long pergola is bordered on one side by a stand of distinguished bald cypress trees, Taxodium distichum. From this angle, one can see the slight tinge of brown in the center tree – this one is always the first to turn. The fall colors are tan, cinnamon, and fiery orange. Bald cypress shed needlelike leaves. In fact, they get the name “bald” cypress because they drop their leaves so early in the season.
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- Outside my Winter House, I have three tall weeping katsura trees. These trees also change color – its blue-green foliage turns bright yellow in fall.
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- Soon, my outdoor grounds crew will be busy blowing all the leaves. I’ll share more photos of the trees in their peak fall colors. What autumn changes are happening where you live? Please share your comments with me in the section below.
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