Fall Color Southern Style

Dogwood is one of the great plants for dependable early fall color in the south. Each fall a glorious spectrum of colors blankets hardwood trees across the country. In Colorado, the gold of aspens catch the eye. In the Midwest and New England, sugar maples are among the most stunning of trees with their brilliant red/orange and yellow hues.

Colorful Southern Trees
Here in the South, we often envy our northern neighbors’ apparently easy way with fall color. Our fall color can be erratic and is certainly very dependent on the type of fall weather we have. Nevertheless in a good year our landscapes can be set ablaze with the deep burgundy-scarlet of red oak and the burgundy-red of dogwood, tupelo (black gum), and rusty blackhaw viburnum. We also cherish the reddish-orange of Virginia sweetspire, sumac, and sassafras, and the multi-colors of sweetgum. Even Virginia creeper and the dreaded poison ivy can color the woodlands in a good season. And nothing provides such dependable fall color in the south as the multicolored, "weedy" escapee from cultivation, Chinese tallow.

Where Does the Color Come From?
Southerners often wonder why fall color is less plentiful here in the south. The answer lies in chemistry. Each tree has its own fall color bound up in the chemical composition of the sap, which provides the "instructions" on what color it is able to turn. Trees develop color according to complex chemical formulas. Depending upon how much iron, magnesium, phosphorus, or sodium is in the tree, and the acidity of the chemicals in the leaves, trees might turn amber, gold, red, orange or just fade from green to brown.
Weather also has a part to play. As the days grow shorter and the nights longer, a chemical clock inside the trees starts up, releasing a hormone that restricts the flow of sap to each leaf. As autumn progresses, the sap flow slows and chlorophyll -- the chemical that gives the leaves their green color -- disappears. In other words, the colors are always there, but as the predominant green dissipates, the others become enhanced and begin to show through. Sunlight, nutrients, and moisture enhance the process, and cool weather seems to bring out the full effect.
But forget all that scientific analysis. We can plan for some fall color by planting the southern species that give us the best forecast for autumns to come, and then just sit back and enjoy those seasons when it all comes together at its best.