It’s been a good year for autumn color here along Colorado’s Front Range. Generally mild weather has created conditions for a display that has lasted the entire month of October. However, over the past couple of days the gales of autumn arrived, and the winds have stripped most of the trees bare of their fall finery.
The Vintage family has heard me state this more times than they can count: “if you like fall colors, and you like yellow, then Colorado is the state for you!”. Which is ironic, because Colorado means “colored red” in Spanish.
Yellows
The primary reason yellow is so predominate here in most of the West, is because our soils and water are very alkaline. For reasons I don’t fully understand, the alkaline conditions make the xanthophyll and carotene pigments in the leaves really stand out.
You don’t need to look overhead to get your fill of autumn colors. The leaves of many perennials flowers also put on a display. While it’s next to impossible for a itty, bitty flower to compete with the blowtorch display put on by their giant cousins the trees, their subtle display adds small touches to the autumn fireworks.
Oranges
Oranges do quite well here along the Front Range as well. Again, it’s because the carotene in the leaves seem to thrive in alkaline conditions.
Purple
Purple does alright here along the Front Range. However, I find that the plants with purple leaves tend to stay in the background and are rarely noticed. Their muted colors get easily overshadowed by all the reds, oranges and yellows.
Reds
Reds for the most part don’t do so well here along the Front Range. The red anthocyanin pigments apparently are not fans of alkaline conditions. That being said, if a tree or shrub is planted in the right conditions, the red fall colors can really stand out.
But, in general, red fall color on trees and shrubs in Colorado tends to be duller and more muted than what their counterparts in the mid-West and Northeast.
There is a shrub that never fails to produce bright red autumn colors here in Colorado, but I despise it. That shrub is Euonymus alatus, commonly known as ‘burning bush’. The reds on this shrub looks to me what a 5 year child imagines what fall colors looks like, and uses the brightest and most garish red crayon in his box to draw with.
I think there are are better alternatives to burning bush for fall color, such as Slo-gro chokeberry (aronia sp), dwarf serviceberries (amelanchier) and maple leaf viburnum. But that’s just like, my opinion, man. If red Day-Glo is your bag, burning bush is the shrub for you.
Now that autumn winds have pulled the curtains down on the show, one can’t help but be a bit melancholy. Stick season is now upon us, and winter is following close behind. But this years autumn display provided an awesome end to the growing season. Bravo, Mother Nature!
How were the fall colors in your area?
