Six on Saturday – 28OCT2023 – Yellows and Reds

Chris Mousseau

Everyone oohs and ahs over the brilliant red leaves we see in the northeast part of North America every autumn and there’s no doubt about it – spectacular red maples and stunning oak, the dominant trees in many forests and woodlots around here, are stunning. Equally stunning, in a different way, are the muted oranges and intense yellows that are abundant in the woods and tree lines around my property. I’m joining Jim’s Six on Saturday crew today with a few of the reds in my garden and a few of those spectacular yellows.

Clockwise from the top left:

  • Viburnum carlesii – Korean Spice Viburnum
  • Acer saccharum – Sugar Maple
  • Carya ovata – Shagbark Hickory
  • Hylotelephium spectabile ‘Autumn Fire’ – formerly Sedum spectaible
  • Sorbus americana – American Mountain Ash
  • Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple‘ – Smoke Tree

27 Comments

  1. Colorful collection…Smoke tree is the bottom left? Black Birches are also a brilliant yellow…we have two large, near the street & on the edge of our neighbor’s…to make three in a row….a carpet of leaves. Scattered around the edge of our yard is Black Tupelo with bright orangey and yellow leaves.

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    1. Yes to the smoke tree. I love how, in the fall, the dark purple abandons the leaf, leaving behind a winey-red hue. I can’t remember though what happens next – do the leaves just fall off or do they further decay to a more common grey-brown…I’ll find out in the next few weeks!

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  3. I love looking at my sumac here with beautiful yellow and red colors. But the memory of the colors at the end of summer / beginning of autumn in northern Quebec remind me of colors that are much more flamboyant. My Smoke Tree has yet to turn this bright red here! Superb colors this weekend

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  5. Even when the display some wear or damage (sometimes because of that display!) the leaves of autumn can be as appealing as the color-filled trees. These are lovely. I especially like the sugar maple.

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    1. The leaves on that maple, and a few others in its immediate vicinity, have an interesting life cycle. In just a few weeks they’ll go from full, normal green, to starting to turn brown as if they’re about to fall off, to turning the brilliant yellow I captured a few days ago, to becoming a soft orange, to flying off in the wind, which is happening today.

      The change in seasons can seem so ponderous to begin with, but then in just a moment, it feels, we’re out of one into the other. Although I imagine the closer to the equator one lives the less extreme the changes are.

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      1. On the other hand, tomorrow’s Houston high is forecast to be 85F. Then, our first front arrives, and by Wednesday the high will be 55F, with a low around 40F. A thirty-degree drop makes a lot of leaves shiver, not to mention the people who’ve forgotten where they stashed their winter clothes!

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      1. Vancouver island is nice. I visited several times when I lived in Seattle, just Victoria and Butchart Gardens, always meant to go explore more of the island. No sign of snow yet, and I wouldn’t mind waiting a bit longer – once it comes, I prefer it to stick around until spring.

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    1. Until a few years ago I didn’t even know that so many of the large (and small) trees on the property are hickory…I found some nuts on the driveway one September and looked up…so fabulous!

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  10. American mountain ash and Shagbark hickory are two that I would like to add to the unrefined landscape beyond the refined landscapes. They do not color as well here, but I want to experience them. They seem to be quite familiar to those in other regions of North America. Sugar maple lives here already, but does not color as well as it does elsewhere.

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