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My top 5 (Not So Common) Trees For Fantastic Fall Color

Oct, 2013
by Andrea Nilsen Morse
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Who doesn’t love fall in New England.  The perfect weather, great farm produce, and gorgeous fall color!  While most people know and love the Maple family for color, there are so many other great trees that can make a perfect addition to your landscape.  Here are 5 that I love:

Sweetgum (Liquidamber styraciflua) may look like a maple at first glance, but the foliage has much more color variation, from deep purple, to fiery red, to bright yellow.  The other tell tale sign of a Sweetgum is its spiky, spherical fruit.

Sweetgum foliage
Super interesting fruit

Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) is a really cool tree.  Its foliage turns fire engine red, but most interesting are its long seed pods.

Oxydendrum arboreum – Sourwood
The ever common dogwood is prized in the spring for its showy flowers, but even better (I think) is its fall foliage.  As a smaller, understory tree, it can create some great interest in a typical sized residential yard. 
Cornus florida – Florida Dogwood, with its beautiful foliage
Foliage isn’t the only interesting sign of fall.  Lots of trees have beautiful fruit or seed pods.    The tree pictured below is called the Seven Son Flower (Heptacodium miconinoides).  It is often listed as a shrub but this one I photographed was at least 20′ tall.  It actually flowers in the fall!  Well the flowers emerge (white) in August but as they fade they turn a bright rosy red and last up until a hard freeze.  
Heptacodium flowers
The flowers really cover the tree and in bright light look red!

And, don’t forget conifers for fall color.  The blue and yellow tones of common conifers offer great contrast to the orange and red of deciduous foliage.  Spruce, Larch, Chamaecyparis, and this Gold Rush Dawn Redwood below all offer great, and unexpected interest.

Goldrush Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostorboides ‘Goldrush’)

So, when planning for fall color in your garden, think beyond the maple and consider some lesser known deciduous trees for their foliage, fruit, flowers and even needles!

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