Fall Color Report for September 14, 2024
(you can find this on the Fall Color Guy Facebook page and there you can read comments about the photos posted with this report)
Today I report on town and gown color for Boone, North Carolina and Appalachian State University. Although it’s still early in the season, I am seeing a lot of trees turning color in town and on campus. The forests surrounding Boone though, are still a luscious green.
I also sense, as many of you may too, that colors are coming along slightly early this year. But don’t get too caught up in that – a warm spell in the next two or three weeks could set things back very quickly.
Nonetheless, I am seeing good color on red and sugar maples, dogwoods, tulip poplars, some birch, clematis and Virginia creeper, and sourwoods. Most color is in town or on campus. I’m also seeing a lot of premature leaf drop. That could be due to the strange summer we’ve had this year.
Why might the trees be early this year and why the premature leaf drop? We had a very hot and dry June, followed by a cool and wet July, followed by hot and dry again in August, followed by cool (not wet) in September. Maybe all this seesawing back forth between hot and cool has stimulated trees to turn early and to have premature leaf drop. I don’t know, but it’s a hypothesis.
This Thursday, early, I will be heading down to Craggy Gardens to check out color development of the high elevation trees. Just north of the visitor center is another parking area with a trail to some bunkers at the top with great views. It’s too early for peak color there, but I’d like to catch it as it starts.
Craggy Gardens is on the Blue Ridge Parkway about 20 miles north of Asheville and a few miles south of Mt. Mitchell State Park. Mt. Mitchell is the highest peak in eastern North America, at 6,684’, and I’ll stop there on the way back to Boone to take in the views. You can drive almost to the summit there, and there are nice trails, both long and short.
I have to do some travel this fall season (like going to see my 97 year old mom) and I will be on the road right around peak color time in mid-October. But as I travel north, I’ll let you know how the fall colors are up through Virginia and Maryland.
In the meantime, enjoy the rest of summer!