Moon Valley Nursery - Arizona Blog

Top 5 Trees That Add Instant Fall Color Of Red, Gold, Yellow, and Burgundy

Written by Garrett Cleverly | 9/25/2015


The fall season is finally here, which means striking colors of red, gold, yellow, and burgundy. The trees that provide these picturesque colors are deciduous trees that shed their leaves once per year. Outside of their exquisite fall colors, all deciduous trees provide many year-long benefits. Once the leaves drop, it allows sunlight to penetrate your home and landscape with much-needed warmth in the colder months. In the spring, the leaves grow back quickly providing dense and large reaching shade for the summer. Below are five of our favorite deciduous trees that we recommend for instant fall color and year-long benefits. 

Raywood Ash
A popular choice for landscapes across the southwest, the Raywood Ash is known for its breathtaking display of rich red to deep burgundy foliage in the fall that gives any landscape a unique touch for the season. Its leaves drop off quickly after the fall season, allowing for an easy one time clean up. During the warmer months, the Raywood Ash is an ideal shade tree that grows more upright than it does wide. Its dark green foliage provides a sharp contrast to any landscape and looks great as a stand-alone or specimen shade tree where its exceptional beauty and color can be admired. 

Arizona Ash
Native to the Grand Canyon State, the Arizona Ash is well suited to handle all extreme temperature changes. In the fall, this deciduous tree’s foliage turns into a vibrant golden color. The Arizona Ash is seedless and only requires one clean up once the leaves drop. The tree grows its leaves back quickly in the spring, which provides maximum shade in the summer months. Its canopy of shade covers a large amount of territory and its flowers form in small clusters in the spring. 


Chinese Pistache 
A fast growing tree that provides piercing beauty to any landscape, the Chinese Pistache is known for its bright red and orange leaves in the fall which makes it a reliable favorite for fall color every year. The tree produces a large canopy of shade while displaying showy and attractive dark green leaves during the summer. The Chinese Pistache is drought and cold tolerant and can grow in the full sun. Due to the Chinese Pistache's size, the tree is ideal when planted in an area where shade is needed. 


Crape Myrtle 
Our customers are always looking for ways to add splashes of color to their landscape. With so many options and varieties, it can be a difficult choice. One of the best choices for beautiful bursts of color throughout your yard is the Crape Myrtle or Lagerstroemia. These awesome trees bloom from late spring through the early fall and are the perfect addition to any front or back yard. These small trees produce exquisite colors in purple, pink, red, and white and look aesthetically pleasing to the eyes when they are planted in clusters on side views or accent locations on your yard. Due to the hard and diligent work of plant breeders in our industry, there are now many cultivars being sold that are mildew and disease resistant. At Moon Valley Nurseries we only offer hybrids that are resistant to these diseases so our customers will not have to treat with harsh chemicals.

Flowering Pear
Known and desired for its fiery-red fall color, the Flowering Pear is an ornamental tree that performs will in many landscape applications. In the spring season, the Flowering Pear produces deep green foliage with snow-white flower coverage that gives the tree incredible depth for long periods of time. Several varieties are available including Aristocrat, Bradford, and Chanticleer. 

All of these trees provide benefits all year long from color to warmth to shade making them ideal choices for your landscape. When you visit any of our Moon Valley Nursery locations be sure to talk to our experts about how you can utilize these trees to the max on your landscape.