off color

I can hear the head-scratching. "She writes a fairly clean blog, what can she possible be saying that's off-color?" But I'm not talking about things that will make you blush. I'm talking about the fall colors -- and the fact that they are just off this year. As in, not right.

It was a very rainy year. Excessively so. Which means that trees that are used to having their roots dry out regularly, and even be stressed a bit during draughty late summers, had soggy feet for most of the year, and no real droughty period. That makes for a lot of unhappy trees. And even more obviously, a lack of proper color in the autumn foliage.


Here's a pretty good example of one such unhappy tree. This is a 20-yearish old Sugar Maple in our front yard. It changed color early, and it was never the brilliant orange color it should have been. And then all the leaves fell off. At this point it should just be starting to color up. It fared better than the other Sugar Maples on our property, whose leaves are, for the most part, changing from yellow to brown and then shriveling. Curiously, the Sugar Maple that normally has the hardest time, because The Map Man and I stuck it in a location that is too naturally wet to be ideal for Sugar Maples, is the only one on the property that is behaving like a normal Sugar Maple. I guess it's become accustomed to having it's toes in the water and this year wasn't much different for it than every other year.

This is a Red Maple (also known as a Swamp Maple). Which are known for their blazing red color. This year, not so much. And this is a tree that actually LIKES being wet. But this year it's acting like a sad Sugar Maple, turning an off-shade of orange. Pretty, but not quite right.

In fact, "not quite right" pretty much describes all of the foliage thus far this Autumn. Here's a batch of White Birches that lines our horse pasture. They are playing the turn-brown-and-shrivel game, just like the Sugar Maples. Only in their case, they're dropping their leaves almost as quickly as they're changing. Which is just not right. Normally a White Birch is ablaze with brilliant yellows this time of year.

Oddly enough, the Oaks, for which turning brown is normal, are coloring up fairly well. Check out the interesting reds and yellows on this young White Oak. It's just not right!

The view up our street this morning. The color is coming, but it's the wrong colors. It looks sort of like Fall in the Mid-West.

Yes, the leaves are changing, but it seems they've put on costumes for Halloween this year.

Which is as interesting as it is disappointing. There's a few things you usually can count on in New England -- the weather being unpredictable, the winters being hard, and the Autumn colors being brilliant.

Makes me wonder what the winter will be like....