Rainbow of Fall Color

The fall color change is a big tourism driver. Some estimates approach $30 billion dollars being pumped into the economies for the sates in the eastern U.S. during the fall!

My wife & I have spent a bit of money traveling around Michigan and Wisconsin over the past few weeks. We just returned from a week of camping, hiking, kayaking, and climbing in NW Wisconsin, immersing ourselves in the colors of the season.

While it is common for a tree-nut to dive into the chemical processes going on inside the leaves that lead to seasonal color change, I'm going to spend a little time talking about it from a different angle. 

I assume most of your time tends to be spent closer to home as it may be easier to walk through your back yard or around the neighborhood to enjoy the colors.

You may have more control of your personal surroundings, so I'm going to talk about a few trees you may be interested in adding to your landscape. Since there are many factors to consider when planting a tree, please consult with your local nursery for species, cultivars, and hybrids that may best fit your climate, site conditions, and desires!

​Here are couple of my favorite trees for their fall color appeal:

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RED

​Northern red oak (Quercus rubra) - not only is it a faster growing oak that develops into a large shade tree and provides benefits for wildlife, it can also be enjoyed for its red leaf color in the fall.

You can also add red fall coloration with some red maples (Acer rubrum) and white oaks (Quercus alba).

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YELLOW

​Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) - This unique tree, once thought to be extinct, has one of the most magnificent yellow color displays in the fall! After its radiant yellow show, all the leaves drop within 1-2 days. Some may consider that to be clean-up friendly!

For what it's worth, after caring for trees for over 30 years, I cannot recall encountering a single insect or disease problem on any of my clients' ginkgos.

I also enjoy the golden yellow color from shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) and tamarack (Larix laricina). American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) is another favorite of mine along with its attractive smooth gray bark.

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ORANGE

​Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) - Like Wisconsin’s native tamarack, bald cypress is also a deciduous conifer. The tree usually maintains a nice pyramidal form in the landscape and has unique foliage and fall coloration. I could go on about it's bark, trunk taper, "knees"...but I'll leave those for another time.

You can also add orange to your fall color scheme with sugar maple (Acer saccharum, Wisconsin's state tree) and serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.), which is a smaller tree/shrub.

If you are fortunate to live in an area where sassafrass can thrive (Sassafras ablidum), do yourself a favor and check out it's orange fall color! It can also progress into red or even burgundy hues.

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BURGUNDY

​Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) - One of my personal favorite fall color trees! A medium sized tree, its fall color change is exceptional in that it progresses in stages from yellow to orange to red to burgundy.

​Some people classify this tree as a red fall color...but since it progresses into purple hues before the leaves drop, I'm calling it burgundy!

White ash remains my favorite burgundy fall colored tree, but nursery growers stopped producing them shortly after the emerald ash borer began devastating the ash populations in North America.

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GREEN

​Whaaat?? Hear me out...with all the color changing going on, which will includes browns from trees that lack much of a "color show", I love how green foliage stands out in the fall color spectrum! I particularly enjoy both eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) and white cedar (Thuja occidentalis, also called arborvitae).

Look close enough and you'll enjoy their fall color change as the interior foliage turns yellow to orange, providing a contrast with the green foliage on the ends of the branches.​

​Given winter is right around the corner, the green color from these trees will be greatly appreciated and beneficial for our mental health through the browns and grays of the winter landscape.

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(It is fascinating to underdstand how the chemical processes inside the leaves drive the fall color change, so if you want to wade into the technical details, read about them here.)