Enjoy Your Visit — WALK THE GARDEN

An October Fall-Color Tree Walk

Take a fall-color tree walk from the Visitor Center to the newly opened
Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Science Conservation Center

PHOTO: Fall tree color PHOTO: Color reflected in the lake While it is true that prime fall color occurs at the Garden during the first two weeks of October, it is also true that there is a nonstop fall show that spans a much longer period of time, late summer to late autumn, achieving a crescendo of color in those peak weeks of October. Just as they understand the fickle weather in our town, gardeners know better than to try to predict the date the Japanese maples will light on fire, or the moment the filigreed sumacs will be a perfect blend of orange, green, and red. Nature guards those secrets. We leaf peepers can only watch in wonder.

The Perfect Ingredients for Fall Color

What we do know is that the weather this year has been conducive to an excellent foliar display, partly because of the moist spring, moderate summer, and lack of hurricane-strength winds as the plants began to prepare for dormancy. September featured warm, sunny days with cool evenings. Drought or excessive heat leads to leaf scorch, premature leaf drop, and diminished expectations. For maximum fall color, a tree must be healthy and well watered. It also needs an ideal combination of cool nights and sun-filled days, with a minimum of thunderstorms that often rip off the leaves before they are ready. Finally, the tree must possess a genetic coding that predisposes it to show color. If all these factors come together, we will have the show of shows this month.

October is truly a transitional time — with great abundance and harvest followed by drastic change. As the tall trees begin to color up, they compete for attention with all the brightly blooming perennials and annuals planted throughout the Garden. Walking the Garden at this time, one is struck by the overhead displays, the tapestry of bedding plants, the emerald green grass, and the blue October sky. Each tableau is unique, with plants seen in yet another light.

Begin Your Walk to the Plant Science Center

PHOTO: The Great Basin in full color An ideal fall-color tree walk begins at the Visitor Center and proceeds south along the Garden's East Road on the way to the newly opened Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Science Conservation Center. The rings of Autumn Blaze pear trees outside the Visitor Center are celebrated for their glossy green foliage in spring and summer. In fall, as their leaves tumble to the bricks below, they leave behind living proof that a rainbow of color, seemingly impossible to exist on one tree in one season, did in fact occur — green, red, orange, yellow, burgundy, purple — like color chips in a paint ad. Nearby, the Sargent crabapple trees show off their shiny red fruit set against crisp, clean yellow and green foliage.

Leave the Visitor Center and walk to the East Road, where you will see, on your left, the native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers of McDonald Woods. Here, an ongoing show of sequential color lasts well into late fall. Make a mental note that the stone and wood shelter, built in the manner of a Civilian Conservation Corps project, marks a good place for a future adventure and walk in the woods.

It's Color to the Right, Color to the Left

Look right, to the west, for a photographic view of the Garden's lakes, with Horaijima, the Island of Everlasting Happiness, in view. This third island in the three-island chain comprising the Malott Japanese Garden is the one island where you will see plants, but no people. It is there to symbolize Paradise, a state unattainable by men. In the distance, surrounding the Waterfall Garden, standing tall on the horizon, are giant maples ablaze in green and orange. Closer to you on the path, don't miss the bright red sour gums, quick to change once cool nights prevail.

On the eastern or lefthand side of the road is a grouping of oaks and unusual Chinese pear trees (Pyrus ussuriensis), which, like many of the ornamental pears, demonstrate good late-fall color. As the Waterfall Garden comes clearly into view, so do the baldcypress, dawn redwood, and larch trees — whose feathery foliage turns to burnished gold. These trees are deciduous conifers, cone-bearing trees that shed their needlelike leaves in fall.

Looking through to the heavily pruned and trained trees of the Malott Japanese Garden, you can pick out the changing azaleas, ornamental crabapples, Japanese maples, and weeping willows amidst the manicured greenlawns of the islands. Closer in sight are Fall Fiesta sugar maples, which display some of the strongest orange and red color of the season.

Arrive at the Plant Science Center

PHOTO: Science Center in fall bloom This approach to the Plant Science Center reveals all new installations of Exclamation!™ London planetree (note the patchwork bark!), serviceberry (terra cotta is the perfect word to describe their fall color), hackberry, Wildfire sour gum, and Green Mountain sugar maple — all destined to provide years of autumn glory. Additional highlights guaranteed to light sparks include Avalanche crabapples and Somerset red maples.

With the Plant Evaluation Gardens, All-America Rose Test Garden, and Evening Island beckoning with their own colorful charms, many future walks await. For now, enjoy the galleries, interactive exhibits, and gardens of the Plant Science Center, dedicated to the conservation of the plant world and the planet.