David Epstein: Well, welcome to Growing Wisdom. I am here with Scott La Fleur, the Senior Horticulturist at the New England Wildflower Society and we are talking today about leaves fall color. Why do the leaves do these in the first place?
Scott La Fleur: Well, I think that to learn how why the leaves do these in first place, you have to understand why they are green, and they are green because they are producing sugars called glucose by using the sunlight, CO2 and water. And when they do this, a chemical called chlorophyll is the key ingredient and that is the green.
And so then this fall comes along and the nights get shorter and they get colder, and they start to break the chlorophyll down, and what happens is the actual true colors of the tree start to show through.
David Epstein: This is beautiful because look at all the – I love all the – it sort of molten colors. So, what is this and tell me have the trees that you know homeowners might want to look for.
Scott La Fleur: This is a Sassafras and this is just a fantastic tree because you do get all of the colors on one tree. And also it has this really neat mitten shape leaf on it. Another really unique one is Magnolia Ashei, the big leaf Magnolia, and the leaves are gigantic and they turn a really screaming yellow in the fall. You have the Red Maple and you have the Sugar Maple. Red Maple gets a really nice intense red color, the Sugar Maple is a little less adaptable but gets more of an orangey yellow color in the fall.
Other reds are Roneo, which is a Chokecherry. It is more of a shrub or a small tree in fantastic red color, great red berries. And what we consider a real replacement for the burning bush when you want to start talking about invasive plants. Cotinus, the American Smoketree, it is a great one because it gets a real orange and red color in the fall. The Rhus aromatica, the Fragrant Sumac, again, is one of like the Sassafras that are standing behind gets a variety of leaf colors on it, from reds, yellows, and oranges.
David Epstein: So, what would be the ideal conditions to create sort of the perfect foliage here because weather is just always different every year?
Scott La Fleur: There are three factors and the first one is a late-summer dry period usually in August, followed by nice sunny skies in September, and cool nights in October. If you had a very rainy August and a very cloudy September, and a really warm October, you are going to get the worst color.
David Epstein: If we continue to have warmer falls, is there – as a horticulturist, are you thinking that this is going to affect colors moving ahead in years?
Scott La Fleur: Absolutely, as the warmer temperatures come in then it is going to be harder and harder to get good colors here. And then you want to have to keep up to moving up north to get the better colors.
David Epstein: Well thanks Scott. Thank you very much for all the tips and I am sure that homeowners can find a tree that will fit in the area yard when they need something small or large. It seems like there is a color for them.
Scott La Fleur: Absolutely.
David Epstein: Thanks for watching this edition of Growing Wisdom, comeback every week for all of our videos here at www.GrowingWisdom.com.
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