I’ve been eagerly anticipating the moment when the smoke tree Grace drops her leaves, at which time we have a pruning date scheduled to rein in her exuberance. Planted as 4-inch rooted cutting in the northeast southeast corner, she’s now a tri-yard, multi-trunked tree, and both neighbors on either side have taken saws to her in the last year. So, of course, just to vividly impress me with her irreplaceable charms, the little minx flaunts some amazing colors this year, the best I’ve seen from her.
This smoke tree is the result of a cross between C. coggyria with our native C. obovatus. C. coggyria is as underperforming for me in zone 10 as Grace is overperforming. I’ve probably written before that fall color in Southern California is a rare commodity, and apart from some blazing, lemony-yellow Ginkgo bilobas a couple streets over, Grace is the only tree on my street putting on such a brassy show.
love the color! living in southern california, i’ve had to learn appreciate the splashes of color wherever i can find them. we have a sugar maple that does its best ever year; it’s leaves are a rich, ocher yellow right now…hoping for some red. but the red spikes of aloe are going nuts right now!!
correction to my previous comment: not a sugar maple (don’t i wish!), but our sweet gum. geez!
Janine, the aloes are a real distraction, aren’t they? I don’t want holiday decorations, just more aloes!