Scarlet Oak Tree

Outstanding fall foliage

If you’re hoping to add colour to your fall landscape, choose trees and shrubs that cloak themselves in dazzling shades of red, yellow, orange or burgundy. One of my favourite small trees for an autumn show is the staghorn sumac. It offers four-season interest with its distinctive fuzzy branches (which resemble a set of giant antlers), large fern-like leaves, bright ruby berries and a brilliant red fall colour that sets the garden aflame. Reaching a height of about 12 feet, the staghorn sumac is a perfect sized tree for a small garden or one with less-than-ideal soil since it easily tolerates most growing conditions. I recently discovered ‘Tiger Eyes’, a cultivar with lemon-lime foliage that turns an intense combination of yellow, orange and red in the autumn. Keep in mind that sumac trees can be invasive and are best used in areas where they may be allowed to roam around. My favourite tree for fall interest is the oakleaf hydrangea, a medium-sized shrub with year-round colour and interest. In spring the fuzzy buds unfurl into deep green, oak-shaped leaves with a velvety brown bottom. In mid-to late summer, the huge pyramidal flowerheads appear in shades of creamy white or deep pink, depending on the cultivar. Yet, it is the arrival of autumn when the oakleaf hydrangea truly stands out. This is the time when the pretty foliage transforms to a deep burgundy, often with tones of yellow, red and orange. When the leaves finally fall in late autumn, the attractive exfoliating bark is revealed, supplying garden interest during the cold winter months. Some hardy trees and shrubs that offer yellow fall colour include ninebark, American yellowwood, honeylocust, quaking aspen and the littleleaf linden. Shades of red foliage are found with amur maple, red maple, northern red oak, scarlet oak and chokecherry. Add orange fall colour with the highbush cranberry, downy serviceberry, American hornbeam, Ohio buckeye and the sugar maple.

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Orchard Oriole in Scarlet Oak, Bartram's Garden - Photos on Cazort ...

This male orchard oriole was perched in the branches of a scarlet oak tree, in an exposed area where I was able to photograph him without much trouble. The bird and tree were along the north side of the parking lot for Bartram's garden in Philadelphia.

Orchard orioles are a somewhat uncommon bird to me, and I am always excited to hear or see one. In late spring and early summer, I frequently hear them more often than see them. Often, they are far away, singing from a treetop. Their territories can be relatively large and I have never seen a large number of them in a given area. The song of this bird is sometimes described as being vaguely similar to that of a house finch; to me they sound quite different. The orchard oriole has a song that sounds highly varied to me, including a rolling series of bubbly, warbled units, interspersed with sharp, percussive noises like "chuck" or "check" in a way which seems highly jarring to me. It is this jarring quality of the song of the Orchard oriole that makes it immediately stand out in my mind; other "warbling" songs, like a warbling vireo, or house finch, are comparatively much smoother, and the baltimore oriole's song also sounds much rounder and smoother.

Scarlet

With the Normans threatening to overrun Wales, forester Will Scarlet is being sentenced to die for a crime he didn't commit unless he betrays King Raven and his ...

The tree

An 800-year-old Douglas fir ponders the many things it has seen in the natural world as it hears the bulldozers coming, and then some people arrive to save it ...

The scarlet letter

Novel of life of a Puritan woman who is accused of commiting adultry in the village of Salem.

Tree, A Life Story

The richly detailed text and Robert Bateman’s original art pay tribute to this ubiquitous organism that is too often taken for granted.

Oak, The Frame of Civilization