What do you trees look like? (Another one) (most, month, East)

[tvdxer]

In Duluth, above the hill (leaves stay considerably longer at lower elevations):

January 15th: Totally bare, or covered with snow.
February 15th: Totally bare, or covered with snow.
March 15th: Totally bare, or covered with snow.
April 15th: Totally bare, sometimes covered with snow
May 15th: Beginning to bloom or turn green. It's hard to pinpoint when this exactly happens, but around late April / early May they start to bloom, and by May 25th or so they're mostly green.
June 15th: Totally green.
July 15th: Totally green
August 15th: Totally green
September 15th: Mostly green. Some may be changing depending on the individual year. I remember seeing color in early September 2006.
October 15th: Either very vivid colors or in the process of falling, depending on the specific location of the trees and year. Peak last year was around October 5th.
November 15th: Totally bare, with a few (dead, usually) leaves remaining on some trees in sheltered or warmer locations near the lake.
December 15th: Totally bare, or covered with snow.

Generally speaking, deciduous trees go from almost bare to completely green (that really nice spring kind of green) in May. Days in May here are very long, particularly towards the end of the month, and the weather is very variable (but not as much as in April). You can easily have 80° any time in the month, 90° is possible but very rare, and it is not especially unusual to have snow in May, though it usually falls in small amounts, and below-freezing temperatures are common, with the last day of freezing towards the very end of the month.

Through June, July, and August, leaves are completely green. Generally some time in September you begin to see the change from green to yellow. I would say on September 1st in most years, the trees are still completely green, but on September 30th in most years, they are very much in the process of changing colors. Peak seems to average early October, while around October 15th they begin their full-fledged fall and by Halloween most of the leaves at higher elevations are gone, though many remain in lower elevations, and some persisted all the way until November 10th (though they were probably dead-looking by that point).

[susancruzs]

Great post, interesting reading and especially about the green of May and spring, right now I can't wait! One thing that makes the midwest so great, green, green, green and lots of it! I'll take the green of the midwest over mountains any day!

[Candle]

i saw one tree yesterday with substantial buds. This is very unusual.

[dxiweodwo]

Thanks for your posts Tennesseestorm and tvdxer, interesting!


Tennesseestorm, your locale in Tennessee has the exact same tree climatology as North GA...

[dxiweodwo]

Originally Posted by Tennesseestorm

I am at my relatives house in northwestern South Carolina (around 600 ft elevation) and here is what I typically observe...
They have alot of pine and other evergreens to, so fall foliage is not too much there and even less the further southeast/south you go.

January 15th: 100% Bare
February 15th: 98% Bare
March 15th: 70% Bare / 25% Blooming / 5% Fully Green
April 15th: 5% Bare / 35 % Blooming / 60% Fully Green
May 15th: 100% Fully Green
June 15th: 100% Fully Green
July 15th: 100% Fully Green
August 15th: 100% Fully Green
September 15th: 100% Fully Green
October 15th: 5% with Fall colors / 95% Fully Green
November 15th: 50% with Fall Colors / 15% Bare / 25% fully green
December 15th: 100% Bare

Is this close to Anderson, SC? Is this "upstate" SC? Or is it closer to Columbia?

[Tennesseestorm]

Your welcome.

Yes, quite close. Elevations in this metro area range from 1100-2200 ft, so it can vary greatly. I am at 1500 ft, but only about 10 miles to my south/southeast is a mountain that summits at 4400 ft. Interesting to see when going down a highway where it can be seen very well, that it will be really green at the base of the mountain in late April, but as it goes higher and higher, its more brown, but my mid May, even up there its green.

I guess 1500 ft elevation in northeast TN would typically compare to 2000-2500 ft in north Georgia?

Originally Posted by dxiweodwo

Thanks for your posts Tennesseestorm and tvdxer, interesting!


Tennesseestorm, your locale in Tennessee has the exact same tree climatology as North GA...

Originally Posted by dxiweodwo

Is this close to Anderson, SC? Is this "upstate" SC? Or is it closer to Columbia?

Actually it is Anderson. They live in Anderson. When we went there on the October 16-19 range, I was amazed that 99% of the trees were still all green. I had not been there at that time of year before. As we came back and hit the SC/NC state line, elevation had just rose rapidly... fall colors were much more noticable.
Last October it was like that here though... in mid Oct. we still had about 75% all green trees. It varies from year to year, depending on how cold it gets.

In fact, here are some photos I took while in Anderson South Carolina and coming back around the 18th....
This was in Anderson... actually in their neighborhood...


(this was the back side near the community pond)

this was the ONLY tree I could see with color in their area....





this was going down there... heading down I85

this was coming back up.. in downtown Greenville:

and these were heading back home - taken in extreme northwestern South Carolina.... on October 19...


just back in North Carolina...


and now around the TN/NC state line on I26


In Tennessee.... off of I26 at around 3000 ft.





Amazing this much change in a 3 hour drive.

[dxiweodwo]

WOW, that was an awesome post!!!! Thanks!!!


Odd though.....where I lived in North GA.....was at 950 feet in elevation......and those were my personal observations. But the same there though, it can be almost 100% green on May 1st at the base of a mountain and at the top it'll be JUST starting to bud.....and some trees can still be bare at the highest elevations in North GA/Western NC on June 1st..you can bet that by July 1st everything is 100% green though.

I saw that one of your pics from SC had a palm tree on it.....where I lived there were 0 palm trees in the area. I guess where I was has a bit of a cooler climate than Upstate SC, even if I was further south.

[Tennesseestorm]

Thanks.

Yes, by May 1st, all of our trees are fully green here in the metro area. May 2002, we lost alot of leaves in town because of a supercell thunderstorm with huge hailstones that stripped alot of trees of leaves... they never recovered that year.

Yeah, there are several palm trees in that area. It was not until we really got into Anderson that I started seeing them. Anderson is about 800 ft. elevation. North of there I did not see any palms, but we were not in neighborhoods - just driving along highways. I did start seeing alot of Slash pines, etc. Most of the palms I seen were planted in peoples lawns/businesses. That one photo I took that you see - they had about 10 Windmill palms in that yard. We went to another part of SC in 2006 (south of Charlotte) and I seen alot of palm trees there too. When you get on down toward Columbia you really start seeing alot of palm trees and more varieties, even in the "wild".

I even have some palm trees here at my house in northeast Tennessee (one is the same you see in that photo) a Windmill palm. I have had it for about 5 years and its done fine, but this winter was coler and harsher than its been in years and it dropped to 6° here 2 nights in a row and it really took a toll on it. The fronds are all brown and ugly now. I dont think it killed it, but its so ugly. I am hoping it recovers in the spring.

I also have Needle Palms (took the cold with stride) Sabal Birmingham and Sabal Minors. All have done fine. More unusual trees I have for the area are Southern Live Oaks... had these for years and they have thrived. I also have Sand pines, Pond pines and Slash pines (not native), but they have done extremely well here and took the TN winters with stride. I also have Longleaf pines (which I did not see any of in upstate SC, but I did see alot of in north-central SC) that have grown like weeds. There are many of these in our town, which is strange, because they are not native here. I have mostly Loblolly pines (I have about 13 of these trees on my lawn), which are native here, but they are not seen as much as you see them in SC, NC or GA because around here they were all logged out and never replanted. Sad really. Every 10-20 miles though, you will see a "thicket" of them though, but not all over the place like in GA/SC. Most pines here are the ever so common White pines.

Originally Posted by dxiweodwo

WOW, that was an awesome post!!!! Thanks!!!

Odd though.....where I lived in North GA.....was at 950 feet in elevation......and those were my personal observations. But the same there though, it can be almost 100% green on May 1st at the base of a mountain and at the top it'll be JUST starting to bud.....and some trees can still be bare at the highest elevations in North GA/Western NC on June 1st..you can bet that by July 1st everything is 100% green though.

I saw that one of your pics from SC had a palm tree on it.....where I lived there were 0 palm trees in the area. I guess where I was has a bit of a cooler climate than Upstate SC, even if I was further south.

[alphatier]

Freiburg looks almost like this:

January 15-bare
February 15- bare with a first herald of spring (flowers, scrub)
March 15-50% bare
April 15-green
May 15-green
June 15-green
July 15-green
August 15-green
September 15-green
October 15-a lot of color
November 15-color and a bit "bary"
December 15-bare

[Jammie]

TN, those are very beautiful pictures. The whole area looks so lush and green and of course, I love palm trees.

What month were those pics taken? Just wondering because of the autumn colors in the pic of the NC/TN border.