Terra's Garden
Monthly Column by Terra Hangen

Like me, do you love the bold oranges, yellows and scarlets of autumn leaves, and hearing them crunch as you walk through them? Childhood fun involves kicking fallen leaves, and raking them in to piles and then jumping into the brown hillocks. 

Most sections of the country experience the dramatic blazing of autumn leaves. The West has the sun yellow of aspens, the upper Mississippi River in Minneapolis and Wisconsin has fall color tours, and New England’s leaf peeper tours are famous. 

You can create this drama in your yard by planting the spectacular deciduous trees.

September and October are ideal times to plant trees, since they get a head start on becoming established, versus waiting till spring to plant them, and if you are buying at a local nursery you can sometimes see the trees with fall foliage attached, so you can see what color that tree is likely to produce for you.  

Maples
The kings of autumn are Scarlet Maples, AKA Red Maples (Acer rubrum), which are native to the eastern U.S. A classic maple to plant for fall foliage shows is October Glory (an Acer Rubrum cultivar) which is crimson red in fall, 25 to 40 feet in height, and thrives in zones 4-11. Red Sunset, another Acer Rubrum cultivar, grows to 50 feet and is recommended for zones 3-9. Amur maple (Acer ginnala Flame) reaches 20 feet, has brilliant red leaves and grows in zones 2-8.

Dogwoods
Dogwoods offer everything: spring flowers, colorful autumn leaves, and fruit that wild birds love. Chinese dogwoods (Cornus kousa) are popular for their resistance to anthracnose. The rare Chinese dogwood Satomi (Cornus kousa Satomi), AKA Rosabella, is available from Wayside Gardens, 800 213-0379, displays rosy blooms, scarlet fruit and sunset red leaves in fall, is 12-15 feet, and grows in zones 5-8. Samaritan has white flowers, is very hardy, and has green leaves edged with white that turn pink, red and burgundy in autumn.

Native Dogwoods (Cornus florida) AKA Flowering Dogwood or Eastern Dogwood, are popular, native to all of the eastern U.S. from New York to Florida and Texas, and often planted in the Northwest, with Cherokee Chief having red blooms in spring and bronze leaves in fall. 

Sumac
Staghorn Sumac and Smooth Sumac produce splashy fall color along many of America’s country roads. These are not the poisonous sumac! Sumacs will spread by suckers, so cut those back. Most areas of the U.S. and southern Canada have native sumac varieties, with sumac being common in the north east and growing as far south as Georgia.

Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) is named for its young branches, which are fuzzy like a stag’s new antlers. These trees usually grow 9 to 15 feet in yards. The leaves are handsome with a fern frond appearance, and they turn to orange, red or maroon for a short lived display in the fall. Sumac are tough and can be planted where nothing else will grow; they are tolerant of poor soil but not of wet soil. 

Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra) is either a tall shrub or a small tree, averaging 10 feet in height, and up to 20 feet. For bright red in fall this is a good choice. Both sumacs grow in zones 4-8.

Quaking Aspen
If your timing is right, and you have driven through the Colorado Rocky Mountains in mid September to mid October, you have thrilled to see mile after mile of sun gold aspens, contrasted with the dark green of the pine trees growing near. When I experienced this, I had to keep stopping to look and take ever more photos.

Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) has dazzling yellow leaves in fall and has lovely whitish bark. Native to the Rocky Mountains, Alaska, Canada, central Mexico and all of the U.S. except for the South East, its roots are invasive so plant them away from underground pipes. Aspen prefers full sun and grows 20 to 50 feet. Zones 1-6.

Sweet Gum
Plant these trees in early fall, sit back and enjoy the color foliage spectacle next fall. 

The Sweet Gum is a longed for answer for gardeners in temperate climates, like coastal California where I live. American Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is beloved for spectacular fall foliage ranging from yellow and pink to orange, red, purple and crimson. It is helpful to see your tree in the local nursery in the fall, with a few leaves attached to it, which gives you a hint of which colors the tree will provide as it matures. The cultivar Palo Alto is noted for its orange foliage and is very popular in California, as is Burgundy with its deep red purple autumn leaves. Sweet Gums drop spiny golf ball size fruits, when they reach about 15 years, so consider this when choosing where to plant them. Zones 4 or 5 to 9.

Plant these trees in early fall, sit back and enjoy the color foliage spectacle next fall.

About the Author: For more of Terra Hangen's garden tidbits, fun garden photos of her black squirrel friend, tips for beginning writers, and a glimpse into her own journey as a writer visit her blog at http://terragarden.blogspot.com. She is celebrating the publication of her first book, Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts, written with 6 Christian writer friends, and scheduled for publication Oct. 2008 by Leafwood Publishers.

Tree photos on this page are from Wikipedia.com. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the tree photos on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled " GNU Free Documentation License".