Here Comes Fall Y’all

This is the ninth of a series of Cape Fear area native plant articles to appear in Going Green. The articles will include stories about common native plants that would enhance any coastal North Carolina garden or landscape.

by Carol Bales

Anticipation of cooler weather, less humidity, and fewer mosquitos is a welcome change to our summer’s blistering heat. I was looking on Facebook this morning and found a post about early fall from my sister, Alice, who lives in Albuquerque. Here it is:

“There’s a late summer feel to the garden. The summer cross-quarter day has passed, and the days are getting shorter. Store displays feature pumpkin spice and sweaters. School has started. I’m expecting Christmas decorations any day now…”

Alice explained what the summer cross-quarter day is. The calendar is divided (by the folks who invented it) into quarters, or seasons, and we mark the four days when seasons change as solstices (Sun standing still) and equinoxes (day and night of equal length). Those dates are around March 21, June 21, September 21, and December 21, but the exact date of each quarter day depends on where the Earth is in its orbit around the Sun.

The cross-quarter days are halfway between these dates—so roughly February 2, May 1, August 2, and October 31. The ancient Celts recognized these dates as the end of one season and the start of the next and had traditional festivals to mark each of these dates. We still celebrate some of these: February 2 is our Ground Hog Day, May 1 is our May Day, and October 31 is... well, you know! There is no longer a celebration of the summer cross-quarter day around the beginning of August, but to the ancient Celts it was known as Lammas, or Loaf Day, and marked the beginning of the wheat harvest.

Here in New Hanover County, we celebrate the arrival of fall with public events such as the Native Plant Festival that is scheduled for September 18. The festival consists of Arboretum exhibits by organizations involved in the promotion of native plants, guided tours of the Arboretum gardens, and children’s activities such as the Koi Pond feeding station and the Junior explorer’s backpack program. In addition, there will be a self-guided tour of local native plant nurseries and presentations by local experts about native plants and their value to our environment.

Sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) turns fiery red in the fall, bringing a sharp contrast to our evergreen pine foliage.

Wikimedia commons photo

All of this is complemented by colorful fall foliage that graces our parks, gardens and public landscapes. A dozen coastal native trees that provide vibrant color are listed below along with their scientific names:

• Red maple (Acer rubrum “October Glory”) – red

• Downey Service Berry (Amelanchier arborea) – red, orange, and yellow

• Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) – true yellow

• River birch (Betula nigra) – gold and yellowish

• Sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) – orange, red, and deep burgundy

• Red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) – yellow

• Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) – yellow

• Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) – rich red

• Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboretum) – reddish wine with white flowers

• White oak (Quercus alba) – faded red

• Red oak (Quercus rubra) – faded orange to red

• Sassafras (Sassafras albidum} – bright orange tinted with yellow

If you want to plant any of these trees you can find all of them planted in the Arboretum or one of our many public parks, just to see how they might fit into your landscape plans before you purchase and plant them.

Copper Beech (Fagus sylvatica f. purpurea) is a slow growing, tall (120 ft) specimen tree with gorgeous golden fall foliage.

Wikimedia commons photo

Alternately, you may want to drive up to our Blue Ridge and Great Smoky mountains to see even more vibrant fall foliage. You might want to read about this area using their fabulous website: romanticasheville.com/fall.htm.

Optimum fall foliage viewing dates and sites are listed in that website.

However you choose to celebrate the coming of fall, whether it be at home in New Hanover County, along the Blue Ridge Parkway, or even up in Virginia or New England, be sure to take snapshots of what you see and send them to iNaturalist.org or to Morgan Freese at Morgan.Freese@ ncaquariums.com. She can help you with use of the website.

Reference

Mellichamp, Larry. 2014. Native Plants of the Southeast. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, Inc.

Alice Monet (Carol Bales’s younger sister) is a professional astronomer who spent 35 years on the staff of the U.S. Naval Observatory, and a Master Gardener certified in Coconino County, Arizona. She and her husband now live in Albuquerque, where they enjoy growing native plants and observing the heavens.

Carol Bales is an avid gardener and seed saver and grows several kinds of milkweed in her yard (to attract Monarch butterflies).