Autumn slowly falls over Petworth with warm colors for the colder days
/Red maple at the Petworth Library parking lot.
If you’ve found yourself walking around our beautiful neighborhood admiring the flowers and wondering what you’re looking at, we’re here to help. Welcome to "Petworth Blooming,” a popular series featuring some of the most common plants and flowers seen around Petworth. Follow @petworthblooms on Instagram for additional photos of our neighborhood flora.
The fall colors in the neighborhood have been especially good this year. All the rain over the summer helped the trees hold onto their leaves longer than last year and the results have been spectacular.
The heart shaped leaves of Redbuds have turned yellow as winter steadily approaches. These native trees don’t have much variation in leaf color, although there are some cultivars which have more red pigments. Come Springtime, the branches will be covered with small lavender flowers.
A redbud in the parklet just south of Sherman Circle.
The star-shaped leaves of Sweetgum show a lot more color variation, even on a single tree. Going all the way from pale yellow to dark red, no other tree has quite the range of leaf color. Does this impressive autumn display make up for the annoying ‘gum balls’ that it drops on the grass? The jury’s still out!
A sweetgum on 7th St by EL Haynes shows off a wide range of leaf colors.
Ginkgo trees have probably the most vibrant yellow leaves of any tree you’ll see around the neighborhood. They are well known for having all the leaves change color very quickly and then a few days later all drop off the tree at once.
Gingko trees in Grant Circle: one pre-change and several post-change.
There are still a few flowers blooming right now, including Dahlias. They can be easily grown from bulbs planted in the spring. There are tons of colors available, with a range of petal densities. These make good cut flowers for indoor displays.
Dahlias in Grant Circle.
Sticking around Grant Circle, the Crabapple trees, which put on a great floral display in the spring, are now loaded up with shiny red crabapple fruits! These will be slowly eaten by birds throughout the fall and winter months.
Crabapples trees bearing crabapples fruits in Grant Circle.
Chokeberry is so named because of how bitter the fruits are. While not very delicious for humans, these will also be happily eaten by birds during the winter. During the fall, both the berries and leaves show off some beautiful red pigments.
Chokeberries in the storm-water management curb along Iowa Ave.
Linden or Basswood trees are another tree that’s exclusively yellow in the fall. These leaves are almost heart shaped and have rough edges. During the summer these trees have small flowers which release a pleasant lemon scent.
Linden leaves overhang the sidewalk on Upshur Street.
In addition to delivering lots of acorns for the neighborhood squirrels in the fall, Oak trees can also put on some good foliage displays. Oaks have a lot of variability in fall color, and some trees hardly get any color change. Oaks also hold onto a lot of their dead, brown leaves over the winter, which is known as marcescence.
White oak tree on 7th Street.
The Chinese Pistache tree has extraordinary fall color with great oranges and reds. Each leaf is divided into 10 to 14 smaller leaflets which enhances the way the autumn sun lights up the canopy. While related to the pistachio, these trees make small berries that are only edible to birds.
Chinese pistache at the Petworth Farmers Market lot off of 9th Street.
Finally, the heavy hitters of fall color around Petworth are the Maples. We have red maples, silver maples, sugar maples, japanese maples and some hybrid maples.
Sugar maple on Buchanan Street.
Sugar maple on Buchanan St.
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