OK, WHERE'S THE FALL COLOR?

NEW ENGLAND ASTER

RED MAPLE JUST STARTING TO TURN COLORS

HINTS OF COLOR HERE AND THERE

Monday, 11:00 AM.  65 degrees F, wind SSW, gusty at times.  The sky is clear, the humidity 75%.  The barometer stands at 29.93" and is falling, predicting rain for Wednesday or Thursday.  But today is a beautiful fall day that started with a gorgeous sunrise.
   I am recuperating well and with some therapy and a few weeks of rest and activity I anticipate being fine again.  It hasn't been much fun, but it sure beats the alternative.
   Here it is, well after Labor Day and we don't have much in the way of fall color.  At this time last year it was already well begun.  Although fall color is mainly a function of day length, moisture and temperature help determine things.  Warm days, falling to cool nights, help hasten coloration, and moisture provides a lot of subtle differences, all to the end that each fall can be different and even each individual plant different in its color response. Pigments (anthocyanins, xanthophylls, carrotenoids and tannins)  trapped when the leaf petiole is occluded by an abscission layer that cuts off water and nutrients and stops the production of chlorophyll, are all a part of the plant becoming dormant.  The National Arboretum has a nice page on leaf coloration.
   New England aster , in the Sunflower Family (Compositae),  is a significant fall flower just now blooming.  It is also known as Michael mass daisy because it traditionally blooms in England on that saint's day, september 29.
   I don't have any New England asters in my garden this year because I rouged them all out, mistaking them for late blooming goldenrods.  That's OK though, because they were taking the garden over; but I should have recognized the difference.