The question is now upon us, will we have a color fall leaf changing season? The answer is: yes, no, maybe. The one thing that is fairly certain, it will be later than last year. This photo was taken October 14 on Pine Mountain and there was really good color at this time. I was out and about last weekend and the color, well it just isn't developing yet. Some of the sourwood and dogwood looked good, sumacs varied from outstanding to blah, and the black gum had pretty much dropped their leaves already. Some of the tulip poplars and sycamores were just dropping leaves and some hickories were brown, not outstanding yellow. So the prognosticators would say that fall color will arrive a bit later this year probably because it has been wet and warm. But we can have some outstanding color although it might be spotty. So what conditions are necessary for outstanding fall color? The best colors develop when you have had a warm, wet spring (which we had), a summer that isn't too hot or dry (which we had) and most importantly fall days that are warm with cool nights (which we haven't had until this week). In general, when you get these conditions the reds are more brilliant (along with the purples and crimsons), the orange-reds of sugar maple can be stronger and more vibrant, and the yellows are pretty much a constant because they are not affected as much by the weather prior to leaf color change. So leaf color could be good but if we get some cloudy, rainy, warm days, then maybe not so much. But even then, there will be spots where the color will be intense, you may have to just search it out.
Kentucky is so natural and the leaf color is beginning to explode and I think it is the most of my favorite time of all year
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your temporary setback. Illness always gets in the way of so many important things but our health is top priority.
ReplyDeleteI live in southern Ohio, Just a few feet from the Adams county line in Highland county, really not far from Maysville Ky. I bought twelve acres of rolling hills so it's not much for crops so I'm planting nut trees like pecan, hazelnuts, paw paws, persimmon and I am looking for other native fruit/nut bearing trees and shrubs. I try to keep it mowed around the house for fire safety reasons but I can't stress enough to my husband that I would like to have a meadow setting down the hill overlooking the property. He insists it has to be mowed a couple of times during the mowing season and I am at my wits end trying to get him to leave it alone. Maybe I'm not sure how a meadow manifests itself? I'm sure I'll have to cull many of the cedars that pop up endlessly but there are black eyed susans, joe pye weed, white and purple asters but I'm not sure which grasses are invasive and which are native? Do you know of any sources on the subject of creating meadows?
If you contact me at my office I can give you specific information on creating a native grass/wildflower meadow.
Delete