> > I'm in total agreement that New England is beautiful in the fall, not to mention the rest of the year. But if you don't live there, you can see similar color in the hardwood forests that extend from there all the way south to northern Georgia.
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> I lived in Virginia for several years, and I found that to be a beautiful state. My favorite season there was spring -- there are so many flowering trees that New England doesn't have, so in the spring it not only looks nice but smells nice too.
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> But I never found autumn there to be all that wonderful. The south is missing two things: maple trees and evergreens. Well, they've got evergreens, but not in such abundance. It seems strange to want "green" in autumn, when you get that color year-round, but there is just something about a mountain side greens mixed in with the warm colors. But it's the maple trees that are missed most. Maple trees turn BRIGHT red. The south has oranges and yellows but not much in the way of red.
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> The other thing the north gives you is the brilliance of the colors. The best fall colors come out when you get a really deep overnight frost. Further south, even though you still get oranges and yellows, I don't find the shades of oranges and yellows to be as bright or impressive.
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> Ideally, I'd have about three different houses that I'd live different parts of the year in. Autumn and winter, way up in the White Mountains. Spring, down south. Summer, in New Zealand where it's winter there.
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> S "does not like hot" am

The difference is not the lack of maples, but the variety. Northern forests have maples that turn red. Sugar maples I would suppose. In the south there are several varieties, including some that will be red one year and yellow the next. I have a variety called "northern red maples" in my yard and I guess the "red" part refers to the petioles on the leaves. They are tall, and surrounded by other trees, so that I hardly ever see the leaves except when they fall. By then they are yellow.
I don't have any of the "water maples" that are common here, but they always turn yellow. My guess is that water maple is a local name, because they always grow near water.
I also have tulip poplars that turn yellow and several varieites of oak, including white oak, pin oak, red oak, and others. Several are over 100 feet tall. They turn red or brown but never the brilliant red of sugar maples. Persimmon trees in my yard usually turn very red, but not every year. Dogwoods are red except in dry years, and redbud trees turn yellow. Other trees are black gum, basswood, pine and cedar. Understory trees include the red bud and dogwood that I mentioned plus sassafras, holly, and wild cherry. There is also a big-leaf softwood that I have not identified. It's leaves fall while still green. Our house was built in a left over portion of the mixed stand forest that used to cover all of Loudon County, so we have a good representative sample. I spend a lot of time mulching leaves and cleaning out rain gutters. That takes some of the fun out of fall colors.
Howard