Fall Fertilization
Learn what you should be doing in the autumn to prepare your trees for the winter.
More

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

After every season of green and shade and the delicious sound of leaves rustling in the evening breeze, deciduous trees have one final gift to offer - an explosion of brilliant color.  For an all too brief period each autumn, every country road becomes a painting and every leafy sidewalk or forest path a gallery.

The way leaves change color is, in its own way, no less miraculous, the result of a complex shift in chemistry as a tree prepares itself for its winter dormant period.  Each leaf, no matter how small, is, in actuality, a sophisticated factory for the conversion of sunlight into energy, a process called photosynthesis.  The chemical compounds essential for this conversion are known as chlorophylls. 

Next: Part 2 »