Pagoda Dogwood
Don't remember name of this grass....

Or this one...has indian in the name.

My autumn blaze pear....still hasn't changed color or burned any leaves. This is one extremely tough tree. Its taken -5 I believe...or maybe 6?

FrozeBudd - I have the northern acclaim. The ones that are doing both well and not well in the city are the shademaster....Its so weird. Some are growing extremely well and are getting huge and others are not doing well....maybe soil and or water? The ones that are doing well are the ones in big beds of mulch compared to the ones that are in boulevard locations which get lots of salt and sand.

Fall color on Sienna Glenn for me both years has been 'Blah'. Mostly ruddy yellow with a bit of orange and red that's not vibrant. Meanwhile the few ABs I know of look fantastic..

Ya sienna glen isn’t great. AB is good 96% of years. Just saw a bunch today at a mall and neighbourhood. They are beginning to show up everywhere. Mind blowingly enough I still see ones that don’t do well that are on the same block as ones that do. I also saw a huge red tree today that could very well be a 30ft AB. I’m going to try to find it on goog maps.

I have come to the conclusion that temps are not killing certain trees and saving others. I watched every one in my town survive -39 last year fine and I have seen ones in Edmonton dieback from -29 while others on the same Block are good. I guarantee it’s lack of water. They have suckers that start showing up the summer before dieback showing stress and those are typically trees in non watered areas like parks and boulevards. The ones that are taken care of seem to do really well and maples are extreme water suckers. Silver maples will do bad as well if they aren’t given water during bad drought but if you do water them, they can grow faster than most other trees and become massive. Nothing else could explain the dieback when the trees have identical genes. But maybe I’m wrong.

Lane you have one heck of a cold day coming up. It’s supposed to be 50s and 60s for us all next week finally. Been a brutal four weeks. My pear is still green and I have no clue how.

So m

So my friend just missed the peak color of this beauty. I think its the biggest autumn blaze in the city. These trees are fully hardy. This is a southern suburb where it can get to -40.

Yeah. It sucks! Supposed to be -1 on Sunday night!

Fall color has been pathetic. Sept was so incredibly warm that few trees seemingly changed before the cold came. Now it's like they are in suspended animation. Quite a few trees are still green as can be which is puzzling considering the recent cold. A few have turned brown and crunchy. I'm guessing all will be utterly fried after this weekend. I now have a theory that good fall color is predicated on a certain amount of warmth and sun.

It's a shame because my northern pin oak and northern red oak are still hanging in there (leaves pliable and not crunchy, aka alive?) and have got a bit of color. I'm afraid they won't get to change before they get wrecked :( Those two are my favorites as far as fall color.

That is a stunning AB! It's decided. I'm going to plant one. Not sure where.. maybe one of my neighbors will let me in their yard lol

Yea I’m still confused why some work and some don’t in the same neighbourhood. Maybe as long as they are in good health they can take the cold no problem but die if they are declining at all.

-1!? Farenheit? That’s like -19c. Holy crap. That would be a record up here that early. I’ve had -6 so far and I was crying which is about 18f I think. It burned almost everything that was still green. Brutal year for fall colour.

Yes -1F. Now it’s improved to +1. Ha. The record is actually -6 so this isn’t even a record, but it’s still depressing. Though the ultimate temps aren’t quite as cold here the late and early cold snaps are probably worse due to the high elevation.

The ABs here seem to be a darker red than that one. I like that one better.

Here is a close up of northern pin foliage. This is as good it’s going to get :(e

Lane, that tree has very nice coloring I'd say!

Plant Love, everyone should have Pagoda dogwood! I had grown several from seed from Gardens North and one just wasn't hardy enough, another being a lanky open specimen and one having turned into very fine specimen, well until I decided to move it and it has never recovered.

Maybe, the one grass you have there is Big Bluestem Andropogon gerardii 'Indian Warrior'?

You’re probably right. It matches the description. The one I took the picture of is shorter and didn’t grow seeds but the other two are taller and have seeds.

So I looked at my Katsura today. Looks like the majority hardened off fine with the exception of about 2 inches of new growth on the top branches which were flexible and ripped right off. I’m pretty sad I didn’t get fall colour for two years in a row but I shouldn’t complain as it’s much hardier than I’ve heard from people thousands of km south of me.

The terminal buds are a bright pink colour and those were the ones that came through good last year. Just glad it didn’t make a 12 inch push in September and had finished the majority of its growing at end of August.

Where did you obtain the katsura if you don't mind stating your source? Last year, I did see a large specimen at Creekside Nursery, though had forgone purchasing it due to dealing with personal matters at home.

Nutcracker nursery. Tbh, I hope everyone starts one and they spread. I don’t think I would have the guts to pay a lot for a big one as they are normally listed zone 5 and a guy from I believe it was Iowa on here said that I was extremely lucky to have it live as they struggle with them in zone 5 where he was.

Its all seed source that matters though. I was hoping my Quebec source sycamore would do fine but it died back to snowline which is truly sad. I would do anything to get one of them growing and I’m almost willing to buy a couple more as last winter was the worst I have ever seen and maybe it just needs a better first winter. They said the mother tree had seen -35 minimum but we hit -39.

My red oak and river birch that have both survived very well were from pine needle farms.

I got 7 F at my house, not 1, so I’ll count my blessings. Lol. All the cottonwoods look like they have rotten, wilted lettuce. Cotoneaster turned brown. Positively lovely!

Sorry to hear lane. It was 13c here today or about 56f. They are predicting 20c or about 68f for Edmonton and about 60f for my town Wednesday.

Look at this craziness. The weather is going awol.

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/texas-sees-snow-before-alaska-weird-weather-amarillo-fairbanks-records-broken-late-fall/115088/

Living near the Rocky Mountains sure gives us the craziest weather swings in the continent though. I’m not even that close anymore but still get a lot of the wackiness with minor chinooks.

There is something going on with the weather the last few years. it's getting crazier

You’re telling me. Now we are forecast to hit 70f tomorrow and edmonton 74f after hitting 60 today. Lol the weather is literally schizophrenic.

So Edmonton broke a record high at 24.7c or about 77f and I got 22c on the lake lot I’m working at. I sweat today!

That’s crazy

This is the only tree that was able to get fall color after our “big freeze”. This was completely green when we got 6 degrees. Literally every other species got fried to a crisp. Betula pendula. Not as god as usual, but it’s all I got!

Buckeye was getting pretty before the freeze...

mundane color of Sienna Glenn. Should have planted AB

Hey Lane. You’re right about planting an AB. Never fails for fall colour. I see your sienna had new growth on the top. I’m guessing that will be toast due to the temps and it wasn’t shut down. Huge problem with freeman maples for us living with crazy fall temps.

And I can’t believe it’s yellow. So odd.

My autumn blaze pear is starting to look incredible. Just starting to fill out red and purple. I’ll upload when it peaks which should be any day now. I’m so stoked to have a tree that can take many hard frosts and still keeping on. He will have leaves into November which is always awesome. And they are the first to flower in spring. I saw them flower 2nd week of March in Denver which is crazy considering the really cold morning lows they can get all the way up to may long weekend.

Yeah, I don't think all the growth hardened off. I had three feet of growth on some of the branches. Insanely fast for here.

Can't wait to see your pear. I may have to get one if it takes cold weather so well!

Here’s the pear today. I am hoping this gets to be mature. Right out my back window and holding on to it’s leaves still through one of our coldest 4 week periods of sept and oct on record.

Yes, looks great and nice to have a splash of brilliant color in the landscape after all other foliage has pretty well dropped. I'm planning on fencing the yard and then can plant without having the constant chore of protecting things from deer and moose!

Just looked at the picture on my computer and the colors are way duller than on my phone... lol. Thats too bad.

I think I’m going to try a big leaf maple next year. They grow native to Juneau Alaska where temps can hit -30s. Why not? It’s a really cool huge tree.

i axtually really want a western red cedar as well and they grow in between jasper and valemont which is z3ish. I actually got one to start from that area but it didn’t work as it was too hot and I couldn’t keep up with the watering. I want to try again and give it some shade.

FrozeBudd I’m surprised my cedar don’t get browsed by deer. We have tons around here but they rarely enter the town but I’m on the edge. Just coyotes in my yard all the time which is bad news for my cats so they can’t go out without me. I had a coyote eating all my crabapples last winter. Young guy who came back later in the winter again. Was mangey poor guy.

It's only a matter of time when wildlife gets your trees...I too bought some game fencing and should put it up soon ...retirement coming up and have more time. Deer never seem to wreck trees but moose will, allot of damage done the last 3 weeks by a cow with calf.

The only saving grace is that there are neighbors closer to the edge of town with cedars and I’m hoping they take it first lol. How was your fall Konrad? Any cool pictures?

And I’ve never seen a moose in town so I’ll count my lucky stars. Only seen one deer in four years running down the road. Coyotes may be scaring them off.

Well Lane we finally got our real cold...but the positive side is that the lows haven’t dropped as bad as they said over night. I’m waking up to -12c which is about 10f I think and they predicted -16c or about 4f. And it’s supposed to be back above freezing Friday and even some predictions are saying +5c mon and +10c tues but they are all over the place depending on the source. Got a couple inches of snow now and my pear is finally dropping his leaves.

Ok this entrance of winter at the beginning of November which is far too typical around these parts, is already getting me anxious for the end of it.

Any of you guys have a tree/shrub request list of things you want to plant next year? I’d hate to have these conversations go dark for six months!

I do like the looks of the big leaf maple you had mentioned, with such large foliage, it might benefit from a wind protected site. I'd love to try western red cedar, especially since I have moist woodland settings they'd likely succeed in.

Plant Love, do you have a few suggestions for a smaller to medium sized feature tree with plenty of interest, autumn coloring being of less importance. I'm looking for something attractive to plant at the edge of the garden, the location is very protected.

They say it’s supposed to be warm this winter, right? It’s been very cold here so far this fall. Highs twenty degrees below average. Stinks.

Anyway, I’ve got a few pear pics to post when I get around to it

I don’t know if these are Autumn Blaze pears or another variety, but they were the only tree that wasn’t crunchy and brown. They looked great. This was in ft Collins the last week of October

Well Denver area would probably be able to plant any of the callery pears because they are hardy there. Chanticleer is a typical but no way to tell until you see it’s mature shape and even then probably hard. I’m surprised they had browned off leaves there. They got that cold?

Froze Budd, I planted a pagoda dogwood this year and the mature tree looks quite amazing. Very different than everything else with it’s branches parallel to the ground and it doesn’t get big.

If somehow you could convince a nursery to try to find a pink flair cherry, it’s the only Japanese cherry hardy to zone 3b. I would love it but haven’t found anyone that could bring it in for me yet. Red rocket maple is nice and I have that in my yard. It’s a skinny red maple that doesn’t get huge.

http://www.jfschmidt.com/introductions/pinkflair/73055a.jpg

Yeah. It got cold enough to fry the leaves there, too, at some point time in October.

I did the scratch test on Sienna Glen maple and I think it's toast or at very least severe die back again. Time will tell, I suppose

Ya, I think we could see damage from severe cold this winter but I hope not, the good thing is that the temps weren't doing crazy swings, at least not here.

I scratched my autumn blaze pear a month ago and it was green with an ultimate low of -33c or about -28f but we have since seen -40c lol and the worst feb on record or close to it. I’ll check it out when it’s a little warmer again but I have no faith it’s alive as it’s said to be dead at -34c. That being said, I have a couple other trees that should have been dead from last years cold too.

There are several factors controlling the red colour of maples. Weather is huge but pH of the soil is another. Maple and blueberry foliage is much more red in acidic soil. Easy to tweak when they are young/small. https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/2073/2014/03/Fall-Foliage-Colors.pdf