Looks like I didn't imagine it

Remember when I said we NEVER get color like this?  Well, I guess I exaggerated a little bit.  We do get color like that, just not very often.  The last time, according to our newspaper, was in 1990.

San Diego trees showing off their many colors

By Robert Krier

Friday, December 10, 2010 at 7:04 p.m.

Photo by Earnie Grafton

Colorful trees line Third Avenue in Chula Vista.

No one is mistaking San Diego County for Vermont, but the landscape this autumn has been especially well imbued with vibrant hues.  The weather has been just right to make the region’s few deciduous trees pop.
“The fall color this year has been phenomenal,” said Sean Peer, retail manager at El Plantio Nursery in Escondido. “It’s the best year since 1990-91.”
Vincent Lazaneo, an urban horticulture adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension, credits the weather this autumn — chilly nights and sunny days.
“Cool nights cause the chlorophyll in the leaves to break down the green pigment,” he said. “The reds and the yellows are already there, but you don’t see them until the green is gone.”
No rain has fallen in San Diego since Nov. 27. Temperatures dropped to the 30s or lower in much of the county Thanksgiving morning and the day after. Then another cold spell hit a few days later. The chill seemed to flip the color switch on the trees.
The roots of this year’s color show go back further, Peer said. Most deciduous trees seemed to appreciate the cool spring and summer, and a wet October kept the soil moist. That helped the trees handle an extreme heat wave in early November.
Another key factor was the lack of even moderate Santa Ana winds. Santa Anas can dry out the leaves and cause them to fall off early, before the reds, oranges and yellows have a chance to emerge.
Any stiff wind or rain now will quickly knock off the colorful leaves, and the heat forecast for Sunday probably won’t help. The coast is expected to reach the low 80s, and the inland valleys could climb to the upper 80s, which might accelerate the lovely leaves’ demise.
Until then, traditional landscape trees such as liquid ambers, crepe myrtles and Chinese pistaches will be particularly dazzling. Some trees that are often fairly muted in the fall, like apricot, pomegranate, pecan, pear and fruitless mulberry, are more vivid than ever.
“I’ve been driving all over the county today, and everywhere I look the color’s been great,” Mike Palat, an arborist and chairman of the San Diego Urban Forest Council, said Thursday.
Native black oaks in the mountains are well past their peak, but many sycamores and willows in creeks and arroyos are still flashing yellow.
Lazaneo said we should appreciate the colors while we can, because it may be many years before weather conditions come together again for a big splash.
Even with perfect conditions, San Diego County obviously will never match the maple-covered hillsides of New England.
“Deciduous trees do not like our weather,” said Shirley Larsen, a master gardener who leads tree tours in Balboa Park. “They like winter, and we don’t offer them much winter.”
This year, though, has offered a slice of fall, Southern California style.
“Occasionally, we do have seasons,” Peer said. “This year has shown us that.”

rob.krier@uniontrib.com; (619) 293-2241