I’ve no advice in the oaks. You might want to consider Nyssa sylvatica for your list of fall coloring trees. It’s a beautiful native tree and fall color can be a spectacular, glowing red.

@indianagardengirl oh wow! you’re right, that is beautiful. I had nixed Sweet Gum becuase i dislike the spikey balls, even though it has beautiful colors, and hopped right over black gum because i assumed they had the same… but it looks like they have small fruit instead. Really a gorgeous tree! thank you for the suggestion. I added it to my list

@bengz6westmd thank you! I’ll probably go with the scarlet oak then. it sounds like it may still be changing after the maples are losing leaves which would be nice for extending the season!

hopin, in early Nov here, along mountainsides, scatterings of scarlet among brown or bare trees is always scarlet oaks. When I lived in mountainous VA, there was a 100 ft scarlet oak down below the house a bit that I always admired -- wish I had taken a pic.....

I don't see good coloration of oaks in my are, NJ, coastal 7a/b. I love Gingko but their color season seems to be very brief in my yard.. I have Pin Oak, would not say the coloration is vibrant, but do like the species. They go from rich green to yellow and fallen in days. In my world, my favorite for fall color is definite Japanese maple "Bloodgood". It keeps its leaves late late in the season, late October, then changes to crimson red and the leaves linger for weeks. Overall, with warmer falls, coloration is not as vibrant as in years past.

Open grown pin oaks produce a pyramidal crown shape. With the long, lowermost branches sagging down into unoccupied air spaces beneath them. And removal of these resulting in the next set of branches above then descending themselves. So not a suitable tree where overhanging of vehicle routes may become involved.