How are the Autumn colours near you?

Brian G

Brian G

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Not really sure which forum to post this in, but since it's approaching the time for the best autumn colours, I was wondering if people could report on the state of the foliage in their local area or places they have visited.

Living in West London I have a fair drive to a few of the places I'd like to photograph, so to avoid wasting many litres of expensive fuel I was wondering if anyone who lived nearby or had visited recently could report (photos optional) on the condition of the leaves at Stourhead and Westonbirt Arboretum.

Similar reports on other locations could be of great help to others wishing to catch the Autumn colours.
 
Here in the Midlands, Coventry to Warwick etc, conditions are highly variable. Many trees still very green, others turning nicely, and some already practically stripped. My guess is the weather this week will not help! :(
 
New Forest around Brockenhurst today was mainly green, a few yellowing but not rich yellows/reds/browns in abundance....

Will have to see what is left once the gales pass through next couple of days. I'd say another couple of weeks if the leaves last.
 
Lots of decent colours up here (Edinburgh), but there are a lot of stripped trees from the recent high winds.
 
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I think it will be a couple of weeks before autumn colours peak in Gloucestershire, hopefully it won't be as windy as it was yesterday over the next few weeks, a frost wouldn't go amiss!
 
Been a long hot summer, I think the leaves will wilt quickly and fall off, especially with a bit of wind. To answer the question half way there here. I'm still hopefully of a Lakes trip though if anyone knows how that is developing? This is quite a cool website http://www.forestry.gov.uk/autumn
 
Woking surrey, not much colour. Green and bare trees with a little yellow
 
Spent the last two weeks over at Ardnamurchan and the autumn colours were impressive.

Came home to Perthshire today and was amazed at how much the colour had come on over the time I've been away.
 
Craig_85 said:
Been a long hot summer, I think the leaves will wilt quickly and fall off, especially with a bit of wind. To answer the question half way there here. I'm still hopefully of a Lakes trip though if anyone knows how that is developing? This is quite a cool website http://www.forestry.gov.uk/autumn
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Thanks for the link, potentially useful, provided it's kept up to date.

I too thought that because of the summer drought the leaves would fall quickly this year, but last week there was an "expert" from Kew Gardens on TV explaining the conditions for leaf colour changes.
He reckoned that in drier conditions the leaves were more likely to turn red, whereas a wet autumn tended to produce more yellow leaves.
His prediction was for really spectacular colours this autumn.
I always thought a frost would help, but the "expert" seemed to think all that would do is make the leaves drop, rather than change colour.

In the long term we'll obviously have to wait and see, but looking at my last years efforts (in the south) I seemed to have found the best colours well into November, although the autumn was fairly wet a year ago.
 
Oaks are good here now - North York Moors,.
A lot of other trees have lost leaves relatively early.
 
I was out yesterday in Bedfordshire and Leicestershire and apart from the Horse Chestnuts, which are afflicted by the leaf moth attacks, very few trees seemed to be turning colour.
As a result of the recent high winds there did seem to be a lot of leaves on the ground, although most of the trees still looked to have nearly full canopies.
 
daugirdas said:
North England and Scotland are very wintry now. It's only 48 weeks left till it goes golden again
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Such is the difference between north and south.
 
I visited the National Trust gardens at Stowe on Sunday - Very disappointing.
Lots of brown leaves on the ground but very little colour change in the trees, and many trees looking quite bare.
Despite the Kew Gardens "expert" predicting lots of red this season, I don't think we are going to get anything spectacular now.
I think within a couple of weeks all the leaves will be on the ground, without any further colour changes.

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Been very disappointing around here - south Hants. I live just a couple of miles from Queen Elizabeth park and the trees have really just shed rather than turn to much colour. Everywhere I have been to has been pretty much the same, leaves browning and curling, then falling, without much colour change.
 
Autumn 2014 isn't going to go down as a classic it would seem. I'm over autumn for this year!
 
It looks like we've had it for this year.
I had thought myself that, because of the dry summer, the leaves would probably fall earlier, but what annoys me is that we had this so-called "expert" announcing predictions on national TV of brilliant colours that simply haven't happened.
I wonder what they would have to say for themselves when challenged, although I suspect the response would be "Oh we've had a lot of wet weather since then, so that's changed everything."
Whatever happens we will have to wait patiently for another year for any spectacular displays.
 
This weekend just gone it was as if the trees here just suddenly changed. It's not the glorious colours we've seen in previous years, but it's much better than a week ago.
 
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