October 16, 2022

Going deeply into October in NYC brings the fall atmosphere around the five boroughs. With beautiful color spots on the trees, pumpkins standing on brownstones’ stairs, and Halloween crazy and fun decorations, you cannot deny it anymore – fall has arrived in the city.
The weather, crispy cold nights, and sunny-dry days are all doing wonders for this year’s foliage, and you can see marvelous bright colors in many streets.

Foliage stage in NYC

In two weeks, you can see a significant change in many plants.
Virginia creeper, which is a very common climb-plant, have reached their peak color.
So are Thornless Honey locust trees which you can see is beautiful yellow.
Red and Sugar maples are reaching their peak color these days and bring stunning colors to the streets.
It is also the Ash trees prime when they get fully yellow and also give the ground a layer of leaves.
Mature White Oaks are changing their leaves to beautiful yellow, about 50 percent changed.
Silver Maples are moving in the right direction with a nice red top, about 40 percent changed.
Some of the Liquid Amber trees are still fully green. However, you can find some that are already 50 percent changed.
Pin Oaks have made another progress and are about 20 percent changed.

Here are some pictures I took yesterday in Carrol Garden, Bed-Stuy and Park Slope, Brooklyn:

Domino Park

Domino park is a lovely public park along the Williamsburg waterfront. It is named for the former Domino Sugar Refinery. It is a beautiful place where you can see a wide variety of trees, a wonderful place to catch the fall foliage.

These young Oak trees reached their peak color with stunning bright red.

This year you can enjoy a pumpkin patch right next to the park, which gives you an extra festive feeling.

Halloween

Halloween is only 2 weeks away, and the city is already dressed-up.
I love walking around and finding really cool creative Halloween decorations.
Here are some from yesterday:

Foliage outside NYC

Deciding where and especially where to go and watch the foliage in peak color can be a struggle.
However, there are many sources that can help you make a better decision.

NY – I love NY foliage report – This popular IG page with a website gives a weekly report on the foliage progression around NY state. Reports are obtained from volunteer field observers and reflect expected color conditions for the coming weekend. Reports are issued every Wednesday afternoon.
Maine – If you want to visit Maine this fall, you should check out the state’s official website, which gives the foliage report for Maine state. The report covers seven different zones and has six levels of foliage statues.
Pennsylvania – PA DCNR follows the fall season with complete reports with all PA regions. Like Maine, they also set 6 different levels of foliage progression.
Vermont – Vermont’s official website provides foliage reports based on the Vermont Department of Tourism and volunteer members of their “Leaf Squad” from around the state. Their foliage levels are simple and have only four stages.
New Hampshire – VisitNH website gives detailed foliage reports. While others use maps to visualize the foliage progression around the state, NH provides information about the seven zones.