Dallas Morning News - October 10, 2019

Tree Planting – Getting Ready for the Ideal Timing

No hard, fast guide on getting the color you want, but . . . if you have in mind adding some fall color to your landscape, timing is now perfect to make some good plans. Color is just starting to show on the deciduous trees, so lets get ready. Although not foolproof, buying trees in the fall while they are displaying their fall color will give you the best odds.

First step is to plan what to purchase. Here are some guidelines on which trees will give the best chances to get the fall color you want.

Japanese maples have a wide range of beautiful fall colors

Texas ash fall color as a wide range every year

Purple colors are the hardest get for sure, but you can have decent luck with red Canadian chokecherry, smoke tree, sweetgum, rough leaf dogwood and some of the Japanese maples. To get a certain fall color, buying the little Japanese maples in the fall is crucial. Their fall colors vary more than any tree. Note on sweetgum – don't plant unless you have sandy soil. They don't hold up well in the black and white alkaline soils.

For red fall color, of course red oak is a choice but there are some issues on that. There are too many red oaks out there already. Also they inconsistent fall color producers and often have yellow or just brown leaves. Another flaw is that red oaks are notorious for cross breeding with other oaks. When crossed with ill-adapted pin oaks or northern red oaks (common thing by the way), you'll probably be seeing unhealthy yellow foliage in the summer. Just look at the trees on Woodall Rodgers downtown Dallas. Other more dependable red choices include common dogwood, prairie sumac and rusty blackhaw viburnum. Texas ash is also dependable with a deep maroon after going through some yellows, oranges and reds. And many of the Japanese maples have beautiful red fall color.

Ginkgo foliage

Mexican plum with rare orange color

Cedar elm has typical yellow fall color

Yellow fall color is the easiest to bank on tending to be the most consistent with a few exceptions. Choose elms in general, green ash, bois d' arc, Eve's necklace and ginkgo. Persian ironwood usually has great yellow color but some varieties and/or cultivars have really nice red color.

The relatively few orange choices include Mexican plum, some Japanese maples and some elms such as winged elms.

Ginkgo

Parrotia

Persian ironwood

Get your shopping underway – especially after the upcoming first frost when the fall color on the native plants strongly starts to show.

To get your newly purchased colorful trees, off to the best start, remove the burlap and soil from the root flares, dig wide rough-sided holes, set the trees high, backfill with nothing but the native soil from the hole, settle the soil with water, add Garrett Juice for root stimulation, don't trim, don't wrap and don't stake unless its absolutely necessary as a last resort.

Prairie or flame leaf sumac

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