pshaw on weather changes... every season is a challenge unto its own ...

leaves are hanging.. because there was a freak cold spell.. before the leaves could dry enough.. to fall off naturally ... what more is there to say ...

we had 40 to 60 mph winds yesterday for about 10 hours... lots of things dont have leaves anymore.. lol ..

BTW ... i seem to think.. here in MI ... my hydrangea.. always hold about half their leaves ... are you sure thats out of the ordinary???

double BTW ... as to smaller things... i like to think of retained leaves.. as a plant self mulching it for winter ... protecting the buds for next season ... or i am just too lazy to worry about cleaning my garden in fall ... i am thinking of my regular H ... that right now.. is a two foot pile of dead leaves.. branches and leaves ... its crown will be all toasty all winter ... lol.. NOT... but it wont be wind swept ....

once you get about 30 garden years under your belt.. especially in one area ... you will come to learn.. there is no.. USUAL .. no normal ... once you think you know everything ... and everything seems predictable ... ma nature will throw you a curveball ... which for me.. was after 35 odds years.. she threw a z4 winter.. into my z5 MI ... i could hear her laughing at me.. yeah.. sure.. figure this one out ...

observation is the fastest track to knowledge.. keep up the good work ... but dont jump to conclusions ...

ken

Although my memory is not all that it used to be. [g] I seem to remember rarely having this problem, but last year and this year it is much more noticeable.

Is that what it is about, the leaves needing to dry out before the cold? I don't know about where you are, but here, I find the Fall much different now than it used to be. Warmer, and longer. And then yes, suddenly cold following a warm spell. Does the amount of rain have anything to do with it too?

All the Silver Maples are leaf free. It has been windy here this fall but not yesterday. We have two large Maples on our lot. One is in the front and was the original and the second was a seedling of the first and it stands about 100ft away to the West of the first tree. Both are mature now. I've been curious this year, to see the original tree in the front, drop it's leaves maybe a full 3 weeks to a month before the other one. And now the second tree still has some shriveled leaves still hanging on. Just something I wonder about, that I'm sure there is no answer for. :-)

Maybe the Hydrangeas hold some of their leaves, I can't remember. This year, all the leaves were still on the shrubs and some were actually turning pretty fall colors and looking good, right before that cold spell. And now all the leaves are brownish green, hanging limp from all the branches. I don't remember noticing that before.

I suppose you could be right, that the leaves hanging on the branches protect the leaf bud for next year. A reassuring thought.

As for leaf clean up in the Fallâ¦we need to do that, because we have an organic vegetable garden, that really benefits from the chopped leaves. I also like to have a good layer of chopped leaves spread over the shrub beds.

We finished ours just this past weekend. One of our neighbors, has three mature Silver Maples and we have an arrangement, that he blows his leaves to the post and rail fence dividing our property and pushes them over into our yard. I love the extra leaves and it only took us about an hour and a half to distribute them on Sunday. That was a 60ft lot line full of leaves 4ft highâ¦lol. It always amuses me to see that many leaves piled along the fence line. So now all three sides of our backyard, have a good 5 inch layer of leaves around everything.

We have lived in this same house for 30+ years, and I can agree that there is always a curveball and one year is always different from the last. Last year was a really cold winter here too, but I did benefit from that, a lot of the winter moths died off and I usually have a lot of pests on my Boxwood and had none last season.

I am a casual observer, really. I don't do it consistently enough.

Ohâ¦and the sun is setting here and the sky is a luscious pink out my window, which reminds meâ¦.we've had about four of those gorgeous pink sunsets in the last couple of weeks. I don't see that every year either.

Nice...

ken_adrian said: "leaves are hanging.. because there was a freak cold spell.. before the leaves could dry enough.. to fall off naturally ... what more is there to say ...

we had 40 to 60 mph winds yesterday for about 10 hours... lots of things dont have leaves anymore.. lol .."

I'd add to that that we had a freak warm spell before and after the freak cold spell and then the strong winds. Some of my shrubs that should have turned nice colors just gave up and dropped the leaves instead. This has been a very annoying fall here on the coast.

At least it looks like the snow tomorrow will stay just to the north of us, or so says the latest forecast.

Claire

Yes, Claire, we did have the freak warm spell and the freak cold spell and the strong winds. We did manage to get color change on most of the shrubs, though. The oak leaf Hydrangeas were a gorgeous mahogany and then turned to red. Wentworth Viburnum was late turning and it did develop a pretty rose color just before it lost all the leaves in that freak cold spell. Right now, although the Oakleaf and Hydrangeas look awful, one Viburnum carlesii is looking just gorgeous. Beautiful saturated shades of red with a little golden interior showing. And all the leaves are intact. That's the only one that looks great right now. lol I was just thinking, maybe I should plant a couple more of those, but where? [g]

You've had more bad weather on the coast where you are, I think Claire. I have been noticing when I see the forecast, that the forecast for the Cape and the Islands has been getting a lot of weather we've been missing.

It has been gorgeous weather for gardening outdoors for the most part though. A few recent cold days, but really nice a lot of the time. We got a lot done this Fall and we are done for the season. The hoses were put away on Sunday. Already looking forward to spring thoughâ¦lol.

Ohâ¦and my husband just called from the car, he is on the highway and called to say, look out the back of the house at the sky. I was looking out the East in the front. WOW!! Amazing sky in the back. Brilliant rose and red tones - very bright and extensively covering the sky with a few small wispy gray clouds.

I essentially agree with claire.

We had a long warm period, got our "killing frosts" late, and got a lot of rain. This may have lulled trees into putting off dormancy a little bit and trying to get a little more growth in. Then we got a sudden cold spell.

If it had been colder or dryer the leaves would have turned earlier and more of them would have fallen.

As far as if it is a long term "change in weather patterns"...that's the sort of thing you can't know for a few years. Studies say it is getting warmer...but there have always been yearly fluctuations, so it's hard to pin any one one year's quirks on global warming.

I agree Ed, that long term change is still not a definite.

I wonder, does anyone understand the effect this has on the tree or shrub? Does it damage the tree, by interfering with it's natural cycle? Are the trees more vulnerable going into winter, because they haven't quite gone into dormancy yet?

I know that trees that don't go into dormancy because they are kept inside have trouble if they are planted outside in cold weather. I know there is a reason leaves change color. The tree sucks in nutrients it wants to recycle, and pumps in chemicals it uses as "chemical warfare" agents against other plants or insects. If the leaves don't change, those nutrients gets lost. On the other hand, it does give the tree a little extra time to photosynthesize.

Here is a link that might be useful: Those Brilliant Fall Outfits May Be Saving Trees

This post was edited by edlincoln on Sat, Nov 29, 14 at 0:13

Thanks Ed, for the link. Interesting theories on the changing fall colors of the leaves. I have my doubts about whether the theory that bright fall colors, warn off insects though. I have an infestation of winter moths every year. The tree they attack the most has the brightest orange color in the Fall, then come spring, the tree is covered with winter moths.

It is fascinating to learn that the tree is recycling nutrients from the leaves as it prepares for winter. Always amazing that something that we just experience as beauty has a process going on unseen to the human eye, that is actually pretty technical.

At any rate, all of my shrubs and trees did turn color, so that is a good thing, it is just the shedding of the leaves that didn't happen as cleanly as usual. And now everything is covered in snow this morning. lol

I'm jumping in without reading other people's posts yet.

Wouldn't the wind have had that appalling effect on the maple's leaves? They hate, loathe and detest wind.