Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. October Glory, Autumn Blaze – these are just two of the improved cultivars in the Red Maple collection that are supposed to have drop dead fall color. Sadly, they may be show stoppers in cooler areas but probably not going to stop traffic in the coastal plain of South Carolina. Another photo pigment that is responsible for the reds and purples in deciduous leaves is anthocyanin, and unlike the flavonoids and carotenoids that are present all season and simply masked by chlorophyll, anthocyanins develop as the leaves begin to senesce, a kind term for decline and die. The factors that promotes anthocyanin production are a combination of bright, sunny falls days and cool nights. The bright days of fall allow plants to continue to produce sugars but the cooler nights mean the concentrations of those sugars increase – and these are the conditions that promote anthocyanin synthesis.
Those Red Maples Need Cool Weather to Produce Their Fall Color
